BY ISABELLE WALKER

RAY WHITE HAS A RICH HISTORY . WE ’ VE BEEN AROUND FOR OVER 120 YEARS , AND WE ARE INTO OUR FOURTH GENERATION OF FAMILY LEADERSHIP .

Despite our longevity , we are determined to continue to grow , while also getting younger . With a focus on innovation , technology and curiosity , we have continued to build market share and enhance the quality of the platform we provide our members .

Investment in technology is one of the key aspects of our success . Our partnership with a small , agile start-up exemplifies our willingness to collaborate and take risks in the name of innovation . The Ray White-NurtureCloud story is one of potential , teamwork and investment .

MASTERS OF OUR FATE

In the early 2000s , we realised that we had a responsibility to lead our network in technology .

We started by selecting , and then fully integrating , the best products in the market for our members . We ensured that members not only had the best technology product suite inside their business , but also that we would be able to negotiate strong financial deals with suppliers and also recruit and develop our own technology team to enhance adoption .

This commitment resulted in the birth of our “ One System ”, which in 2024 , has grown into a technology platform that integrates over 20 products , supported by a specialist team that drives engagement and implementation . Our One System has created network effects via the dayto-day use of over 12,000 members that in turn creates value for our

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members and customers , while continuing to provide technology savings for our members .

Our One System includes many products which have been built by our own software development team . Our Pulse suite was released in the late 2010s , bringing together all our data to provide members with real-time benchmarked information to enhance performance . Refer automates referrals , and their processing , across our network . We also continue to rely on some critical third-party products in the One System . These are products that are world-class , and there is both no need , nor little prospect , for us to to make them better ( eg . Google Workspaces ). Under our build , buy and customise model , we ’ ve been able to be in shape and direct the evolution of our technology offering .

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While our CRM , Vault , is a third party product and handles very well many of the core functions inside real estate businesses , we realised that we had to keep innovating around the CRM . Jason Alford , Ray White chief systems officer , said the group was constantly reviewing the One System to ensure it embodies what we believe is pivotal to operating a high performance real estate business .

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“ Watching the industry continue to change at speed , we knew we had to invest ‘ in and around ’ the CRM to ensure we have a system that reflects our opinions ,” Jason said .

“ Furthermore , the continued change in ownership of many of our providers was a brutal reminder to us that we couldn ' t leave the future of our One System in the hands of others . We are a very happy and important customer of many of the tech providers on our platform , but we realised that for some things we should build rather than buy ”.

Enter NurtureCloud .

INVESTMENT

In 2019 , Ray White was approached to invest in a fixed-fee real estate agency which was established with a business model very similar to Purple Bricks . It invested heavily in lead generation ( i . e . customer marketing ), hoping that such investment would require limited agent prospecting . It also marketed a low , fixed-fee commission . This original model proved to be ineffective ( like Purple Bricks ) as it did not attract productive agents and the return on lead generation made it unviable .

Given these challenges , it pivoted to become a technology-based agency , developing its own technology systems to enable agents to prospect effectively , while also giving vendors an entirely new level of transparency on agent activity . It remained a low , fixed-fee business , but they gave their in-house productivity software a name - NurtureCloud .

Matt Gay , Ray White chief technology officer , was impressed with the technology that underpinned the business .

“ We found NurtureCloud to be a nimble startup with good leadership , demonstrating success with testing and learning their way through a challenging model ," he said .

“ NurtureCloud was very much in line with our technology future ”, explained Matt . “ Some of its features we had at the time , some were in development , some were in our roadmap - but the cohesiveness of their platform was far ahead of where we were . And they seemed to have a well set team that was moving fast .”

Discussing the opportunity that Ray White saw when it met the agency business and its NurtureCloud team , Ray White managing director Dan White said that while the low fixed-fee agency model did not resonate with him , NurtureCloud was very exciting .

“ We passed on the opportunity to invest in the agency business , but we pursued the separation of NurtureCloud as its own entity and the possibility of investing in it ,” he said .

“ Fortunately we were able to separate NutureCloud and invest directly in that ”.

Ray White acquired a controlling interest in NurtureCloud in 2020 , with the balance owned by the development team .

“ We realised that we weren ’ t just buying some advanced technology , we were becoming partners with a strong team that were totally focused on the success of the product ,” Dan said .