Techstars Colliers Proptech Accelerator provides a glimpse into the industry’s future

On December 4, Techstars hosted a Demo Day for its Colliers Proptech Accelerator, a Toronto-based program that helps property tech startups overcome business challenges and find investors.

The Demo Day is the culmination of a three-month program that gives proptech entrepreneurs access to mentors from Colliers, a Canadian real estate services organization boasting 400 offices in 68 countries. This year, the accelerator received applications from over 50 countries.

Many of the startups in this cohort used cloud technologies and artificial intelligence to help the real estate industry better serve customers that use their data. “It’s clear to most, that Toronto is one of the top cities in the world for all things real estate. Now we have seen this shift to proptech and smart city innovation,” said Sunil Sharma, managing director of Techstars in Toronto. “I am encouraged by the innovation signal this sends to the world’s best startups, and will inspire even more of the best and brightest entrepreneurs to consider Toronto and accelerators like Techstars.”

Ten startups presented during the Demo Day, providing a glimpse into the future of building and managing properties with technologies. It’s a lucrative market. According to CB Insights, global property tech (proptech) investment is projected to reach a record US$6.3 billion across 382 deals in 2019, compared to US$4.5 billion invested across 399 deals in 2018.

Below is a list of the startups that presented:

• ADEx (Berkeley, USA): ADEx uses machine learning to extract insights from contracts. The company offers two products, InteLease, which allows users to upload contracts for legal abstraction, and ADEx Analytics, which allows firms to manage their entire real estate portfolios with an online dashboard and real-time reports.
• AREX Real Estate Technologies (Madrid, Spain): During the Demo Day, AREX announced that the team would be moving their headquarters from Madrid to Toronto. AREX uses blockchain technology to digitize and close complex real estate transactions. Its product suite in development includes a solution that certifies and stores digital identities for all stakeholders, a smart data platform that allows participants to store and validate documentation, and a deal consensus platform.
• Bred Token (Toronto, Canada): Bred is building a blockchain-based real estate fund. The goal is to have Bred perform due diligence to ensure assets meet investment criteria. At the appropriate time, Bred plans to seek a listing with primary stock markets to provide greater liquidity to investors.
• BlueSuit (Denver, USA): BlueSuit provides relationship management software for real estate investors. The company stores real estate documents, extracts data for better decision making from those documents, and allow users to collaborate with team members and clients in one centralized platform.
• Fast Office (Toronto, Canada): The company takes PDF flyers of office space and generate 3D layouts, providing a total cost of occupancy and the ability to edit in front of tenants. The goal is to help tenants make more timely decisions.
• Finneo (Toronto, Canada): Finneo automates the process of securing financing for commercial real estate properties. The platform allows firms from small property owners to REITs find the right plan from both Canadian and U.S. lenders. Users can keep track of debt, track bids and keep up with market trends.
• PropertyQuants (Singapore): Founded by a team of PhD ex-quantitative traders, PropertyQuants’ platform ingests real estate data from around the world, standardizing and normalizing the data for local markets. The platform also performs analyses allowing investors to make decisions based on quantitative data.
• RealAR (Gold Coast, Australia): RealAR uses augmented reality to allow people to visualize spaces and do walkthroughs before it’s built—all through a smartphone.
• Skenario (Helsinki, Finland): Skenario automates property valuation by using artificial intelligence to predict value and risk. Clients include asset managers, property owners and financial institutions.
• Talox (Singapore): Serving the commercial real estate industry in Asia Pacific, Talox allows customers to access leasing and portfolio data, manage leases, complete financial analysis and receive proactive recommendations on leasing activities—all in one place.

For those interested in applying for Techstars Toronto’s next cohort outside of the application window you may contact Sharma at Sunil.sharma@techstars.com.

Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.