Cricket, estate agency and AI: Adi’s story
How teamwork shaped Adi Edekar’s journey from property management and professional cricket to co-founding cinnamon.
What do cricket, estate agency, and AI have in common? Probably more than you think. As a former cricketer and property manager and now the founder of cinnamon io, I’ve seen firsthand how the success of all three industries relies heavily on one key component.
The vital link is teamwork. As much as agents like to retain control, to be successful it’s not possible to do everything or rely on outdated business models. We all have different skills, natural talents and aspirations, but no matter how motivated, we can’t undertake every role or maintain 24/7 focus and discipline.
Early learning
It’s a lesson I learned early. When I was 14, I helped to manage my parents’ growing property portfolio in New Zealand. From then on, I became obsessed with estate agency, buying my first property when I was 22. I quickly realised that clients appreciate and expect good communication, certainty that things will happen when promised, and deadlines will be met. Estate agents who try to do everything themselves inevitably burn out and their businesses fail.
Some years later I was enjoying life as a professional cricketer, travelling the world and playing for great teams. It was a fantastic time, but once again taught me the importance of teamwork. You can’t be in a winning cricket team without relying heavily on other players in your squad. Each player has to pull their weight, embrace every available level of support and new technology and champion their team members to get the job done.
My passion for property continued and I went on to study finance, build AI and set up a consultancy in New Zealand. When I moved to the UK and met my business partner, it was time to focus on a new and very exciting idea. We wanted to build an AI platform specifically for estate agents. This platform would be like nothing else on the market and totally transform how agents worked. With the help of a superb team, incredible mentors and serious investors, that’s exactly what we’ve achieved.
Today I’m the co-founder of cinnamon io. With teamwork firmly at its core, cinnamon is a platform where humans and AI work together, to increase sales, lets and revenue.
Uncovering lost revenue
As well as incorporating many of the early lessons I learned, cinnamon is the result of extensive research. We talked in depth to leading agents across the country and uncovered huge gaps where income was leaking through. Many of those gaps were hiding deep within existing databases. Incredibly, some agents were sitting on hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost revenue. With cinnamon on board, all those gaps are identified and plugged.
Facing fears
Win-win
Here’s the truth. AI will not replace the existing estate agency model, but estate agents who learn, use and train their teams on AI will 100% replace agents that don’t. There is a huge amount of anxiety about AI. Most of it is centred around people worrying that AI will take their jobs, or agencies will lose the personal touches that attracted clients in the first place. I’ve worked in estate agency, and understand the pressures, and that’s why with cinnamon, humans and AI work together as a team.
Agents already using cinnamon are seeing impressive results. For example, five of Winkworth’s London offices that are using cinnamon recently achieved 37% more sales and 52% more lets per negotiator. And that was in a falling market (first half of 2026 versus 2025).
Market conditions and unexpected global events can impact profits, and hiring more and more negotiators and admins no longer makes business sense. When cinnamon’s Negotiator Nancy joins the team, she works 24/7 to plug any income that has been leaking away. Teams are always amazed at what she uncovers! New enquiries are always caught and converted for negotiators and sales managers to work on. When teams are freed up from hours of admin they can concentrate on meeting and talking with clients, sealing deals, increasing profits and earning more commission. Teamwork like this is truly transformative.