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Seventeen years inside the system we build on.

HomeBid was designed and built by a COINS ERP solution architect with direct access to the housebuilders it sells to. The raise funds the six people who turn that into a company: a lead engineer, two engineers, a Head of Developer Sales, a compliance lead who acts as MLRO, and customer success.

1
Founder, sole builder to date
6
FTE by end 2027
7
FTE by end 2028

Founder and CEO

Rob Penman

  • 17+ years in construction technology as a COINS ERP solution architect, delivering implementations for UK housebuilders and contractors
  • Established relationships and direct access across the housebuilder customer base HomeBid sells into
  • Sole founder; designed and built the platform to its current hardened state, 30 suites and 882 tests passing
  • Founder of SyncLayer Technologies, a solution-architecture practice serving construction and housebuilding clients on COINS
  • Adopt AI Grand Palais speaker on AI and construction technology

What the founder does after close

Product and the customer

Until April 2027 one person sells, onboards and builds. The first two hires exist to change that: the lead engineer takes the codebase, CI and release discipline; the Head of Developer Sales takes the pipeline and the onboarding playbook. The founder keeps product, the pilot customer, the first fifteen developer relationships and the regulatory set-up.

Seed advisers
Wyvern Partners
Fractional MLRO
From November 2026, through the pilot
Counsel
AML and FCA perimeter opinions, Q2 2027

Six by end 2027,
seven by end 2028

Sized to the raise, from a March 2027 close. Employer on-costs 16%, recruitment fees 15% of first-year salary. Every hire moves with the close month.

RoleStartOwns
Lead engineer, CTO-trackApr 2027The codebase, CI and release discipline, resident staging, security work, the HMLR live promotion
Full-stack engineerJun 2027Buyer and developer journeys, the COINS connector on live credentials
Head of Developer SalesJul 2027Pipeline from Developer 2 onward, the onboarding playbook, housebuilder events
Full-stack engineerOct 2027Reporting for sales directors, buyer verification re-use, connector at scale
Compliance and onboarding lead, MLRODec 2027The AML posture, screening operations, the annual risk assessment, developer onboarding compliance
Customer successMar 2028Live developers, panel-firm briefings, renewal
Contract product designerJun 2027Buyer and sales-team interfaces, part-time

Upside adds a third engineer and a developer success manager in 2028. There is no CTO, Head of Product or 25-to-40-person plan in these materials; those appeared in the withdrawn April 2026 versions and were never funded by a £2M raise.

Evidence over adjectives

Status labels

Nothing is built without a label

Production, pilot, staging, coded, parked. A capability is not described as built without one, and a label is not upgraded without evidence: a passing acceptance list for production, live customer use for pilot, an external condition met for gated.

A single source of truth

Every number traces to the model

Financial Model v3.0 carries a register of every external figure and a sources sheet with a verification status for every statistic. Anything not in those two places does not appear in investor materials.

Controlled language

No partners, no prospects

Relationship language is established relationships and direct access. No developer is described as a partner or a prospect, and the pilot customer is unnamed until it consents in writing. Decisions are recorded in the engineering decision log with the date and the reason.

Meet the founder

A walkthrough of the pilot build, the model and the data room, with the person who built them.

17+
Years implementing COINS for housebuilders
Apr 2027
First hire, the lead engineer
Q2 2027
MLRO named, counsel's opinions in