Online estate agents Emoov and Tepilo, and lettings portal Urban.co.uk have completed a £100m merger, creating the largest player in the digital market after industry leader Purplebricks.

Sarah Beeny’s Tepilo has joined forces with Emoov and Urban.co.uk to form the UK’s second largest online estate agent

The firms have also entered into a deal with Channel 4’s Commercial Growth Fund to launch a major TV advertising campaign. Under the deal, Channel 4 will take a stake in the enlarged group in return for airtime on its channels.

The merged business will be headed by Emoov chief executive Russell Quirk.

Emoov said the three businesses, which are valued at £89m, had secured £15m in new investment from existing and new shareholders, which included Channel 4 and Richard Desmond’s publishing group Northern & Shell.

Quirk said: “This is a pivotal move in the fast-growing digital sales and lettings sector and is designed to place us as one of the absolute winners in the space.

“We’ve joined together two of the best known fixed fee estate agency businesses to make the ‘number two’ contender; along with one of the UK’s most established online lettings companies, and a war-chest of £15m in new cash and media power.

“Strategically, this is a powerful combination and with the very best senior team to deliver on our plan to improve and further dominate the estate agency industry.”

Former Channel 4 presenter and Tepilo founder Sarah Beeny added: “I’m truly delighted with the combination of the Emoov, Tepilo and Urban families to form such a valuable proposition.”

Finally, Adam Male, founder of Urban.co.uk said: “Being part of a much larger group of property specialists with significant resources to deploy for growth, is truly exciting.

“I’m proud to be joining the senior team at Emoov to advance our progress as the go-to player in better value home sales and rentals.”