The Real Estate Tech Startups Worth Watching
Ten years ago, most execs in real estate did not give a second thought to tech startups, let alone tech startups in their very own industry. Indeed, in 2008, only about 176 such startups existed—now, according to 2017’s numbers, there are almost 1,300 startups—all vying to be the next big thing. Even once-hesitant entities are tripping over themselves to invest in real estate’s best and brightest.
That being said, 1,300 is an exorbitant amount, one that allows some of the most cutting-edge innovators to get lost in the shuffle. So in the spirit of continuously pushing the boundaries of real estate tech and supporting the creators who do so, here are some of the industry’s most noteworthy startups.
Convene
Watch out, WeWork—the co-working space biz is far from yours alone. Founded in 2009 by Ryon Simonetti and Chris Kelly, Convene describes itself as a “workplace as a service” platform with $500 million in financing to its name. That’s still minimal compared to WeWork’s plans to reach $35 billion valuation—but Convene isn’t quite WeWork, either.
“We often get compared to WeWork, but we believe co-working is the first step in a much larger opportunity,” Convene CEO Ryan Simonetti told Fortune. “We are helping landlords run an office building like a full-service lifestyle hotel. It’s the Starwood-ification of real estate.”
The “Starwood-ification” Simonetti is referring to is the management of amenities in an office building, from food to event space, conference rooms, and gyms. Additionally, Convene offers “branded” retail locations across the U.S., as well as “managed amenities” packages to landlords. These top-notch amenities allow landlords to better attract new talent, especially in an era where so many would prefer to work from home via the internet.
“For landlords, it’s a perfect marriage because it solves an issue that arises as our end customers seek more flexibility in the size and scale of their footprints,” said Ben Brown, executive vice president at Brookfield.
It’s also worth noting that, unlike WeWork, more than half of Convene’s revenue comes from established companies with over one billion in revenue and more than 1,000 employees—think Barclays, Comcast, and Ernst & Young. Those backers will become essential as Convene looks to the future.
By the end of 2018, Convene expects to have 23 locations in five cities, with a grand total of 700,000 square feet to its name. By 2019 it plans to ambitiously expand even further—with 1,700,000 square feet of space in 10 cities. The company also plans to launch a software product that will “digitize” buildings, creating a space where everything from booking a conference room to going through security can exist in one space.
Bowery Valuation
Bowery Valuation’s mission is simple—to streamline the clunky commercial real estate appraisal process. Founded by friends and Bay area natives John Meadows and Noah Isaacs just three years ago, the young company has already made an impression on some of commercial real estate’s biggest players.
Prior to Bowery Valuation’s vision, appraisal was arguably one of the most antiquated arms of real estate. It was a paper-and-pen and old school camera venture, where meticulously handwritten notes reigned supreme. It didn’t take long for Meadows and Isaacs to imagine something better for the industry.
“For us, seeing how hard appraisers worked and how intelligent they are in their craft and the gap between that and the way the reports are received on the lendings side pushed us to start Bowery Valuation,” Meadows told Real Estate Weekly. “When you talk to banks and ask about their biggest headaches, it’s always appraising. The tools we have are just so antiquated and it leads to delays.”
Bowery Valuation’s solution was to hire a VP from CBRE to be its chief appraiser, and from there create a mobile app that allows appraisers to easily tick off items, rather than scratch away at whatever weathered notebook happens to be on hand. The platform also automatically pulls public record data so that appraisers have all of the information they need in one place. Rental and sales comps are also saved forever and can be easily found via a map-based search.
The company has many other plans coming down the pipeline—ambitions that are facilitated by its $5 million in seed funding—including entities such as Cushman & Wakefield. Cushman itself is even utilizing Bowery Valuation’s appraisal technology, which can only mean that many others in the commercial real estate sector will shortly follow suit.
Dealpath
Commercial real estate is a complex business, and there are plenty of moving parts within any given transaction that require constant moderation. Founded by Michael Sroka in 2014, Dealpath’s mission is to streamline the often messy underbelly of commercial real estate transactions, from increasing communication to centralizing critical data.
“Over the past three or four years there’s been an enormous amount of investment in commercial real estate software services and tools,” Sroka told Bisnow. “That’s fantastic, [but] as we roll out those tools it’s really critical that those tools can work together. We want to be the command center for institutional firms to evaluate and execute deals.”
Sroka’s all-encompassing command center includes full visual views of a deal pipeline and portfolio, as well as streamlined communication via Dealpath’s platform.
To date, Dealpath has raised about $8 million in funding, but it has supported more than $500 billion in deals via its platform. That’s a number that you can expect to increase, as Dealpath now allows customers to integrate data into other software services, such as Yardi, MRI Software, and even Salesforce or iLevel.
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