TK Gondo, who previously spent 150 days intentionally homeless, has officially launched Harper, a data intelligence platform designed for the UK property finance industry.
Last year, TK wrote a book describing the reality of the loneliness and abuse faced by thousands of homeless people after sleeping rough.
“The Longest Bench: Down and Out” received widespread praise for its raw and honest portrayal of life on the margins.
Sadly, two of the people featured in the book have since died.
TK has now channelled that experience into building Harper, which he has developed in stealth over the past six months from his home in south Essex alongside two co‑founders.
Harper aggregates public and private data and uses artificial intelligence to give lenders and brokers instant profiles of the developers and companies they are considering working with.
The aim is to help finance reach credible developers more efficiently, supporting the delivery of more housing.
TK said: “What I saw in Brighton wasn’t just about individual misfortune.
“It’s about housing systems that don’t work and finance that doesn’t reach the people who build homes.
“Harper is the other end of that same problem.
“If we can help the right finance reach the right developers, more homes get built.
“And more homes getting built means fewer people falling through the cracks.”
The platform already has specialist lenders and broker firms using it ahead of the public launch.
One early user, Tawanda Mbauya, director of Private Property Finance, said Harper has been “a brilliant tool to see what’s going on in the market”.
Before founding Harper, TK was chief executive of Polygon Students, a proptech platform he launched across 23 UK cities.
He also worked at several venture‑capital backed startups in property finance, giving him insight into the challenges faced by lenders and brokers.
Harper’s co‑founder and chief technology officer Ivane Gkomarteli built the platform’s data infrastructure from scratch.
The third co‑founder, Dmitrii Ievlev, brings fintech and data expertise, having previously worked at Smart Pension and co‑founded Polygon Students with TK.
Harper is now live and available at askharper.ai.