PropTech

Startup
Report
 Property is both the largest asset type and one of the
proptech slowest to innovate. It is an industry that is rife with
inefficient processes, unnecessary transactional costs
/prɒp/tɛk/ and multiple self-interested parties.

These industry traits are also what makes it a huge

opportunity space for entrepreneurs. Proptech startups
are initiating change through disruptive technologies
and business models. They are designing products,
services and process offerings that speed interactions
with end customers. They also want to collaborate with
incumbent players, giving them the enablers they need
to shape more exciting and relevant businesses that
ease their ability to differentiate, attract and lead.
Samuel Hall
We compiled this report for the property developer, Partner, CEO ASEAN
the building manager, the contractor, the project
financier and the customer, who wants to understand
the new thinking that’s happening in this space.

Justina Chen
Growth Lead
 Opportunity Spaces

Multiple areas of disruption are emerging across the property value chain, here’s our snapshot of the ones
facing the biggest change today.
Exchange
Real estate is the largest asset class. But it is also the most
expensive, highly illiquid and not portable.

Traditional exchange of property ownership is inefficient, slow and

costly. New companies are making real estate transactions, both
sales and leasing, faster and more efficient.
 What problem are they solving?
Selling a home is incredibly stressful due to unclear valuations, multiple
stakeholders and untrustworthy estate agents. Nested provides home sellers a
cash advance to buy their new home while helping them to sell the old one at
the best price.

How do they do it?

Nested prides itself on highly accurate valuations based on multiple sources of

market data and in-person appraisal. On average, customers sell their homes
for 1.5% more than the valuation price.

Unlike traditional estate agents who are incentivized to win the seller’s
business, Nested is incentivized to provide certainty on a sale from the
beginning.

London, UK Based on the valuation, Nested sets aside a cash advance so that the seller has
2015 the option to move before the old house is sold. This gives the customer
Series C, US$85 million flexibility and puts them in a better position for negotiation.
 What problem are they solving?
Recent graduates do not have sufficient credit history and find it hard to access
capital to buy their first home. Sofi expanded from being a student loans
provider to offering home mortgages, focusing on first-time buyers.

How do they do it?

SoFi applications are fully online and take just 2 minutes to get pre-qualified.
SoFi considers additional factors for loan approval, such as earning potential
and cash flow after expenses so recent graduates with a shorter credit history
could still receive a loan based on their education and career.

SoFi offers competitive rates, with as little as 10% down on loans up to US$3
million, with no hidden fees or prepayment penalties.

SoFi creates a community and ecosystem to support its target demographic,

recent graduates and millennials. A SoFi membership comes with the use of
any SoFi product and offers benefits such as career coaching, complementary
San Francisco, US financial planning and even includes events such as home-buying workshops
2011 and speed dating.
Series F, US$2.7 billion
HAUS What problem are they solving?
Traditionally, the only two options to home ownership were to pay cash or
borrow money from a bank or lender. Haus partners with aspiring buyers to
finance a home purchase by buying equity in the home. Monthly repayments
are lowered by up to 30% compared to a traditional mortgage.

How do they do it?

Instead of borrowing from a bank, buyers partner with Haus to share equity on
the home. Haus co-invests in property, sharing the risks and rewards of
changing home values. Homeowners make monthly payments to Haus to
purchase more equity. The shared equity allows Haus to offer significantly
reduced monthly payments.

As co-investors, Haus shares in the appreciation and depreciation of a house.

This means their incentives are aligned with the owner, so they want to get the
best price during purchase. They also provide the necessary support if/when
the owner wants to sell.
San Francisco, US
2015
Seed, US$7.1 million
 What problem are they solving?
Investors and lenders spend a lot of time researching commercial properties
and still come up short. Reonomy scours and aggregates thousands of data
points to provide objective property information.

How do they do it?

Machine learning algorithms aggregate disparate commercial real estate

information from various data sources and providers, including geospatial data,
ownership and transactions. Investors and lenders are able to subscribe to the
Reonomy platform and get to discover new opportunities, uncover insights and
connect with owners.

In an industry where access to data is key, Reonomy has secured exclusive

partnerships with the biggest commercial real estate data providers, including
Dun & Bradstreet and CoreLogic. Private data partnerships make Reonomy the
only commercial real estate data service able to aggregate and integrate those
insights onto their platform.
San Francisco, US
2015
Seed, US$7.1 million
Use Whether we live, work or play in them – properties are built to be
used.

The sharing economy has changed the way we use buildings and
spaces. Beyond WeWork, these companies are now enabling
profitable shared use of houses, rooms, offices, restaurants, retail
spaces, car parks and storage.
 What problem are they solving?
Major cities are experiencing a shortage of affordable housing and steadily
increasing rents. Common provides relatively affordable, flexible housing for
people who want to be part of a community.

How do they do it?

Common is able to lower rents by densifying buildings, putting more units in a

building than you’d find in a typical apartment. Costs are also shared for
common spaces such as kitchens, laundry and living rooms.

70% of Common members are moving to the city for the first time. Common
provides tenants with a community app that connects people with shared
interests. Members can move into Common buildings in other cities without
breaking their lease and still maintain their connection to the community.

New York, US
2015
Series C, US$63.4 million
 What problem are they solving?
Homeowners want to earn money through Airbnb lettings but may lack the
time, capacity or expertise to manage the property. Hostmaker removes the
hassle of managing short-term rentals through integrating services such as
listing, housekeeping and guest relations into a single platform.

How do they do it?

Hostmaker aims to be more than a run-of-the-mill property management

company. They offer a premium branded homestay hospitality service –
managing guest communications, reservations, check-ins, housekeeping and
listing management. They also offer interior design services that enhance the
appeal of listed properties.

Hostmaker’s advanced pricing algorithms are tailored to risk profiles and the
property portfolio. Prices are adjusted on a daily basis to deliver the best
possible revenue. Homeowners earn up to 30% more with Hostmaker
compared to traditional lettings.
London, UK
2014
Debt Financing, US$29.3 million
 What problem are they solving?
Many restaurants offer a dinner-only service, leaving their space idle during the
day. Spacious offers a way for restaurants to monetise unused space by
transforming it into a weekday workspace for members.

How do they do it?

Although co-working spaces are a more flexible option to traditional offices,

membership fees are often still quite high and out of reach for freelancers and
others in the gig economy. Instead of taking up a long term lease and paying for
costly build outs like a typical co-working provider, Spacious rents unused space
from business owners. Its fees are thus less than half the cost of a WeWork hot
desk, coming in at an attractive price point for its users.

All Spacious locations are outfitted with power strips, additional routers for
high-speed Wi-Fi and a bottomless tea and coffee bar. Members also have
access to a network of drop-in spaces and can also host guests and small
meetings.
New York, US
2016
Series A, US$9.1 million
 What problem are they solving?
Big brands are facing the challenge of speed and low prices from e-commerce
retail. AppearHere lets businesses rent temporary pop-up spaces to provide a
crucial, experiential element to their customers.

How do they do it?

Businesses can find and book spaces online. Flexible leases allow brands to
treat stores as a place to experiment and keep things fresh for their customers.
In this way, stores become marketing fronts for brands rather than just places
to make sales.

Space owners can easily list their spaces – whether market stalls or rooftops –
for free on AppearHere. When a space is booked, Appear Here takes a 15%
commission. On average, with AppearHere, space owners can earn 1.5x more
than traditional lettings.

London, UK
2013
Series B, US$21.4 million
Manage
Real estate – whether commercial, residential or industrial – needs
to be maintained and managed to ensure their optimum use.

Companies are deploying technology-based platforms to facilitate

the operation and management of real estate assets. These
platforms improve management by providing information about
building performance, or allowing direct control of building
services.
 What problem are they solving?
Facilities managers struggle with rising energy costs and optimizing
productivity. In industrial facilities, lighting can account for up to 37% of energy
consumption. Digital Lumens offers intelligent LED lighting combined with an
industrial IoT platform for more energy efficient lighting and better outcomes.

How do they do it?

Digital Lumens deploys intelligent LED fixtures and advanced lighting controls to
help industrial facilities achieve up to 90% in lighting energy savings.

Intelligent LED lighting and smart sensors create a foundation for industrial IoT
infrastructure. This creates a network to collect critical building and facility data
including occupancy, energy use, environmental conditions and more. Facility
managers can make data-driven decisions regarding cost savings, space
optimization inventory placement and safety measures.

Boston, US
2008
Series c, US$55.3 million
 What problem are they solving?
Airbnb hosts and other short term rental owners find it challenging to
coordinate physical key exchanges, particularly at odd hours. In large buildings
and facilities, access to different parts of the building must be safe and secure
while allowing different levels of authorized access. Igloohome provides a suite
of smart access products to both residential and commercial property owners.

How do they do it?

Igloohome’s locks use a technology similar to a bank token’s One Time

Password (OTP) and allows PIN codes to be generated without Wi-Fi. Rental
and Airbnb hosts can thus program their smart locks to open for users
remotely.

Igloohome’s access management platform makes it easy to manage and grant

access to a large numbers of security devices. Levels of permission can even be
customized for different people. PIN code keys are traceable and do away with
the hassle of replacing physical keys.
Singapore
2015
Series B, US$20.3 million
 What problem are they solving?
Not many people are aware how much electricity their households consume on
a daily basis. This makes it difficult for people to take concrete actions to save
energy. Sense monitors home energy use and provides real-time insights on
electrical usage.

How do they do it?

The Sense monitor is installed on a home’s electrical panel with no rewiring

necessary. Detailed instructions are included for the electrician installing the
monitor, and installation can be completed in less than 30 minutes.

Beyond energy tracking, Sense allows a new way for people to understand how
their home works. The Sense app displays real-time insights into various
electrical appliances. Energy targets can be set and homeowners will receive
recommendations to cut down usage accordingly. Sense also detects anomalies
so that homeowners can see which devices are in need of repair.

Cambridge, US
2013
Series B, US$48 million
 What problem are they solving?
Enterprises waste millions of dollars annually with 30% of the average office
building lying empty during peak hours. Lone Rooftop help enterprises tackle
inefficiency and optimize space utilization through its Building Intelligence
Dashboard.

How do they do it?

Lone Rooftop applies algorithms to existing data sources like Wi-Fi and sensor
data to continuously calculate where and how many people are present inside
a building. Buildings are thus transformed into intelligent buildings using
existing data infrastructure.

Mismatch of space supply and demand causes workplace inefficiencies. The

insights from Lone Rooftop helps direct workers to vacant workspace or
conference rooms. It also helps to validate workplace strategies and optimize
office layouts.

Amsterdam, Netherlands
2014
Venture, US$3 million
We’re a corporate innovation and venture development firm. We
create, accelerate, and scale new business with the world’s leading
corporations and entrepreneurs. Want to learn how to work with
Together with our corporate clients, we are:
startups?
- Building new startups
- Identifying growth-stage startups to work collaboratively with
them on key challenges and,
- Accelerating early-stage startups in collaboration with
corporates.

We have partnered with over 10% of the Fortune 500 to deliver

tangible results. Some of our clients include: