Ryan Gallagher, Founder & CEO of iovox, joins Edmund Keith and Simon Baker to talk about what communications data really says about marketplace leads. He explains why swapping voicemail for AI agents took lead capture from 9% to 90%, why call volumes are rising rather than falling, and why a phone call is still the strongest signal of buyer intent. Also covered: the US Cloud Act and data sovereignty, why software is no longer a moat, and how emotion detection is changing call analysis.

00:00 Intro
01:42 What iovox does and who it works with
02:54 Only 47% of phone leads get answered: the stats that surprise
04:34 How fast AI calling has arrived
06:15 Data privacy, the US Cloud Act and the EU
13:26 Why iovox hosts and trains its own models
16:25 Software is dead: what counts as a moat now
18:59 Can AI replicate iovox?
22:21 AI agents for bookings and replacing voicemail
24:51 Whose problem is a missed lead: the portal or the agent?
29:14 When AI talks to AI
29:42 Are phone calls dying? Call volumes are up 25 to 30%
31:50 How phone leads convert versus email and text
33:07 LLMs and the consideration phase
40:01 Emotion detection versus sentiment analysis
42:57 Will AI replace salespeople?
43:40 A decade of iovox and what comes next

Guest:
• Ryan Gallagher, Founder & CEO at iovox: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangllghr/

Presented by:
• Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/
• Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

In this week's news roundup, three AI-first portals launch in the UK and Australia, 360Latam and SeLoger both buy niche players, and we ask whether the industry talks too much about product.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:03 The Rise Of AI-First Portals
04:31 How Do You Market An AI Portal To Wary Consumers?
11:50 What Do The New Challenger Portals Really Want?
18:13 360Latam Acquires Casas y Más
19:59 SeLoger Acquires Ouest-France Immo
21:04 Why Big Portals Are Buying Niche Players
24:06 PPW Madrid 2026 & Startup Day
28:26 Do Portals Talk Too Much About Product?
35:26 Do We Actually Use Real Estate Portals?
39:26 Speed To Market For Renters
42:01 Wrap

The Rise Of AI-First Portals
Three AI-first portals have launched in the past month. In the UK there's Mal McCallion's MyPorta, which says it has more properties than Rightmove and is free to list forever. In Australia there's SohoAI, which is free to list and has virtual staging, a chat interface, mortgage calculations and market charts built in. There's also a new buyer-focused AI platform for commercial property. With public feeling towards AI turning cautious, Harvey asks how you market a portal built on the technology consumers are wary of. Simon asks what the business model is and what problem is being solved. He thinks incumbents will cherry-pick the best AI features, and explains why buying a home is an emotional search rather than a transactional one.

Challenger Portals: Shrinking Moats Or Lower Barriers?
SohoAI founder Jonathan Lui says AI has already shrunk the moats around the biggest portals. Ed disagrees: the moat is brand and traffic, and what AI has shrunk is the barrier to entry. Simon goes through the three moats (listings, brand and audience, billing relationships) and explains why only the listings moat has really weakened.

M&A: 360Latam And SeLoger Go Niche
360Latam, owner of InfoCasas, has acquired Uruguayan platform Casas y Más, which built a strong audience on social media alongside its portal. In France, SeLoger has bought Ouest-France Immo, the regional market leader in western France, with 1.3 million monthly unique visitors and 3.5 million leads a year. Simon explains why portals are really a series of local games, and why small add-on acquisitions are cheap right now.

Do We Talk Too Much About Product?
Ed tests a theory from his PPW Madrid presentation: of all the levers a portal can pull, the industry over-indexes on product, even though no challenger has ever overtaken an incumbent on product alone. Simon and Harvey explain why product dominates the conversation. Then the team admits how often they actually use portals themselves, and why, in a tight rental market like Madrid, speed to market matters more than bells and whistles.

The PPW Conference is in Madrid from 28 to 30 October, with Startup Day on 27 October. Get your tickets at ppweurope.com.

Presented by:
• Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/
• Harvey Hancock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/
• Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

In this week's news roundup, Ed, Harvey and Simon cover four big stories from four big companies: Zillow's latest legal setback, REA Group's return to Europe, Hemnet's free-to-list pivot and an activist investor at Rightmove.

This episode is brought to you by Fusion 4 Ventures.

Zillow loses its dismissal bid
A judge has rejected Zillow's motion to dismiss the Dupuis class action, brought on behalf of agents in its Preferred and Flex programmes, so the case now moves into discovery. The suit alleges Zillow pressured agents to sell Zillow Home Loans products at the risk of being dropped from its programmes.

REA Group buys into Distilled
REA Group has agreed to take a 35% stake in Distilled, owner of Daft.ie and PropertyPal. Simon explains why a minority stake in a vendor-paid advertising market makes sense, and what it could mean for Hemnet. Plus: Daft's Marcus Hartwall moves to Hemnet as chief commercial officer.

Hemnet goes free to list
With challenger Booli showing far more listings, Hemnet is introducing free-to-list tiers and aggregating listings from agency websites to reach full market coverage. The team discuss Hemnet's average revenue per listing and Similarweb data showing Booli now ahead on traffic.

An activist at Rightmove
US activist investor Sachem Head has taken a 6% stake in Rightmove, whose shares have fallen around 40% in the last year.

PPW Europe 2026 is less than a month away. Get your tickets: www.ppweurope.com

Presented by:
• Edmund Keith: LinkedIn
• Harvey Hancock: LinkedIn
• Simon Baker: LinkedIn