- £15m valued firm unveils plans for 30 new studios as part of plan to be UK’s largest homeowner architect
- Turnover set to exceed £50m by 2025 as regional UK expansion drives 970% increase in clients within a year
- First international studio to be built in Dublin with aim to take innovative full project service model to the USA next
- ‘Uber for architecture’ has grown using VR and AI to provide the ‘perfect client experience’
THE UK’s fastest-growing home architecture firm – HOKO – has unveiled plans to rapidly expand and open a first international studio as part of its mission to become a global household name within the next five years.
The Glasgow-headquartered firm aims to make its innovative full project service model to every UK home by opening 30 new studios before moving overseas for the first time with a Dublin studio later this year.
The plans – which follow a successful UK regional expansion which has seen clients increase by almost 1,000% – will be financed by a £500,000 crowdfunding campaign launching on September 30. The investment will give anyone the chance to own part of the burgeoning business’ future.
Scottish architect and 2021 Great British Entrepreneur of the Year Danny Campbell, 30, founded HOKO in Glasgow in 2019 with the objective to fix a ‘broken’ industry by creating the perfect ‘one-stop-shop’ client experience for homeowners seeking to improve living spaces with the help of architects, trusted builders and a free interior design service.
In the short time since, HOKO has grown to be worth more than £15 million, helping more than 400 clients complete projects the length and breadth of the country.
HOKO expanded across the UK earlier this year opening new studios run by project architects in Inverness, Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham and two in London, also adding to its service in Edinburgh and Stirling, all against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The firm has grown its team too, more than doubling headcount to 30 in a year when RIBA research suggests registered practices across the architecture industry have cut new hires by 5%.
The moves came as the firm also launched two new services – HOKO Build and HOKO Shop – meaning the whole process can be delivered in one place in an average time of fewer than 190 days.
Despite being in BETA testing, HOKO Shop and HOKO Build have already delivered more than £300,000 this financial year to date, with HOKO on track to turnover £1.4 million – a predicted YOY rise of almost 240%. The predictions follow revenue growth of almost 500% between 2019 and 2021 to £368,000.
With further national and international expansion in the pipeline, HOKO has forecast annual revenue to exceed £50 million by YE 2025.
The number of projects carried out by the firm also rose by 970% to nearly 400 this calendar year as interest in home improvements and extensions surged throughout lockdown.
Now the same homeowners HOKO was created to help have the opportunity to join the firm on its journey by owning part of its exciting future.
Danny, a Glasgow School of Art graduate who trained at De Montfort University, said: “The HOKO mission has always been to provide the perfect home remodelling experience for homeowners. Now the business can be owned by the same homeowners that are at the heart of it.
“Our regional expansion, allied to the new revenue streams opened through HOKO Shop and HOKO Build have taken the business to the next level, and rapid national and international expansion is the next step towards HOKO becoming the global force we know it can be.
“We’re still at a really exciting stage for investors. We are small enough that personal investment will capitalise on our biggest growth phase. I’d encourage anyone interested to take a look in more detail, and I hope they choose to join the HOKO family on our exciting journey.”
HOKO achieved its early success by filling a blind spot in the architecture, construction and home improvements industries with a unique business model underpinned by ‘client obsession’.
The firm offers clients a smooth, single-transaction project experience which makes use of cutting-edge technology including virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to support the high-end design, build and filling of spaces that transform their homes.
HOKO’s secret sauce lies in turning the established architecture model on its head.
The firm has developed a process that allows small projects to be consistently delivered at a high volume by unburdening key professionals. HOKO has built a team of high-calibre architects supported by technology and a strong backroom team so all energy is focused where it should be – on the architecture.
Large architectural firms have traditionally shunned smaller projects – viewed as ‘a hassle’ – in favour of higher yielding large projects.
HOKO has reversed this principle by becoming a large firm selling high-volume person-hours by delivering smaller projects on a large scale. The model enables the HOKO to take on 10 times the amount of clients as a traditional practice while spending more one-one-one time with them.
HOKO estimates UK homeowners spend more than £55 billion on home renovations every year. With more than 450,000 UK home planning applications decided each year and no market leader, HOKO is primed to step into that position before embarking on its next objective to be the household name in home improvement on the world stage by franchising the model globally.
Described as ‘Uber for architecture’, HOKO has already attracted backing from world-class investors Donald Wilson, Graham Campbell and Warren Gee, who see the firm’s potential to be a world leader in its field and now sit on its board.
HOKO Design’s crowdfunding options in this round of crowdfunding begin at £25 rising to £25,000. The HOKO Crowdfunding launches on September 30, to be kept up to date visit hokodesign.com/crowdfunding.
