2017 Set to be Record Year for Real Estate Tech Investing
Global real estate value is worth about $217 trillion, and startups are just beginning to scratch the surface of digitizing this massive pool of assets.
Startups like Zillow (IPO), Redfin, and Trulia (acquired by Zillow) were early winners in the space. Two real estate tech startups, Opendoor and Compass, are now considered "unicorns," and others are not far behind. Just this week, housing investment platform Roofstock raised $35M in Series C funding from Canvas Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Nyca Partners, QED Investors, and FJ Labs. In September, real estate finance startup RealtyShares raised a $28M Series C round from Cross Creek Advisors, Union Square Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and Menlo Ventures.
According to Pitchbook data, 2017 is set to be a record year for real estate tech investing and is on track to exceed the $1B in investment into the sector in 2016.
Innovations in real estate
Listing and search services were the early winners in real estate tech, but there are many other fast-growing startups in residential and commercial real estate:
Commercial real estate is a huge market with large transaction amounts and is slowly innovating. VTS, Reonomy, and Honest Buildings are leading this charge. Honest Buildings is an intuitive, data-driven project management and procurement platform built for commercial real estate owners and managers. VTS is a platform for landlords to manage leasing and assets. Reonomy is a data platform that allows real estate investors to research properties nationwide, contact owners, and identify comparables. Nestio is offering all-in-one marketing and leasing management for landlords and brokers. CREXi is a listings marketplace for commercial real estate spaces.
Residential real estate startups are also reshaping how consumers and landlords interact in the market. Startups like Triplemint are innovating in online brokerages. Cozy offers landlords rental management solutions like handling rent payments online and managing the application and approval processes digitally. Rezi streamlines the leasing process; the startup pays an upfront fee to become a tenant and then leases out the property.
