IMMO hires former WeWork and Alfred top executive Arik Benzino as CCO following international expansion and opening of new tech hub

• Benzino will be responsible for the company's revenue strategy as it continues international expansion and the establishment of a technology hub
• Benzino follows another high-profile appointment at the business, with Hima Mandali having joined as CTO from Solaris Bank AG

LONDON, March 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- IMMO, the tech driven real estate investment platform building single family rental housing (SFR) portfolios on behalf of institutional investors in Europe, announced today the appointment of Arik Benzino as Chief Commercial Officer following a period of rapid international growth. In this role, Benzino will be responsible for driving IMMO's revenue strategy, as it looks to enhance its offering to institutional investors and expand its revenue channels to include add-on and financial services to its residents.

Benzino joins IMMO with 25 years of international entrepreneurial experience, marking this move as one of the company's most senior executive appointments to date. He comes from Alfred, North America's leading resident experience company. He previously led WeWork's operations in North America and Israel as COO, steering the company's operations to achieve 5x revenue growth over a two-year period.

"I am beyond excited to welcome Arik's immense wealth of experience and knowledge to IMMO," said Hans-Christian Zappel, IMMO Co-founder and CEO. "His appointment is a testament to the incredible quality of talent that IMMO's mission continues to attract, and underscores our deep belief that, much like the way we work together, the way we live does not need to be stuck in the past century. Arik's commercial acumen, together with IMMO's winning technology, firmly cements us on a path to become Europe's first proptech unicorn."

"IMMO is Europe's most exciting proptech company," said Benzino. "Its technology has allowed the company to control every part of a seller or resident's experience, while opening up a previously inaccessible asset class to large institutional investors like pension funds—something previously impossible to do in Europe. It takes a daring company to come in and radically reinvent an entire category, and I'm thrilled to join the team on its mission to revolutionize how people sell, rent and live in Europe, and one day, globally."

Benzino's appointment adds to an exciting series of recent announcements for the company, with the high-profile appointment of Solaris Bank AG's Hima Mandali as CTO, as well as the company's Series B raise of $75 million in early 2022—the largest Series B raise in European proptech to date. The company has since executed on its plans to enter the Spanish and UK real estate markets, expanding from its large footprint in Germany, and has also opened a dedicated engineering and product hub in Chennai, India. 

About IMMO
IMMO is Europe's first technology-led residential real estate investment platform designed to create portfolios of quality from existing single-family rental (SFR) assets at scale and at speed.

The company has built a unique capability in the form of an end-to-end service solution, providing investor clients with everything from sourcing, acquisition and portfolio management through to lettings and property management, in order to drive performance and maximise returns.

Powered by technology, managed by experts, the platform sources, underwrites and structures SFR assets into large portfolios for investors, resulting in stabilised rental income, capital appreciation and best-in-class property management. IMMO is active across 10 major German markets (Hamburg, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Hanover etc.) as well as Spain markets (Madrid), the UK (London), and has a growing team in India.

IMMO has been awarded "Tech Pioneer" by the World Economic Forum and has been titled "Real estate asset manager of the future" by Goldman Sachs. The company was cofounded in 2017 by CEO Hans-Christian Zappel who has been acknowledged on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, together with its CIO Samantha Kempe (Blackstone, PwC), and COO Avinav Nigam (Walt Disney, Procter & Gamble). IMMO's team is 120 people strong with offices in the UK, Spain, Germany and India.

Media Contact
Dawid Baranowski
IMMO
[email protected]

SOURCE IMMO