Curated daily by our industry experts. Stay informed on how tech is shaping the real estate industry with these important headlines.
Wall Street Journal
For decades a handful of urban areas have attracted the lion’s share of well-compensated knowledge workers. For nearly as long, the rest have tried mostly in vain to compete. Tax incentives and cheap housing have occasionally convinced big companies to relocate their headquarters, but the hoped-for flood of bright young things rarely seemed to follow.
The Real Deal
Crowdfunding firm Prodigy Network has sold one of its commercial properties at a $10 million loss, creating further uncertainty for investors in the troubled firm. The company sold 114 East 25th Street — where it operates the co-working space “The Assemblage” — for $41.3 million, property records show. Prodigy purchased the 12-story building for $51 million in 2016, borrowing $35 million. Investors in the building were required to put in a minimum of $50,000, according to Prodigy’s website.
Bisnow
The boom in coworking and flexible offices in the past five years has to a large extent been a city-centre phenomenon. The big brands like WeWork, IWG and The Office Group have focused on central London and big regional cities like Manchester and Birmingham, targeting growth at those areas with a high density of companies and workers.
Crunchbase
The cost to acquire a new shopper who completes a purchase is now at $19.47–half of what it was a year ago, according to the 2020 Mobile Shopping Apps Report. And engagement from the install-to-purchase rate is up by 40 percent year over year.
Crunchbase
On Wednesday, the Austin-based company announced its $3 million seed round led by Chicago Ventures, with Schematic Ventures, CEAS Investments and Redwood Technologies also participating. Including the new funding, CognitOps has raised a total of $3.5 million since its inception in 2018, according to Crunchbase data….
Venture Beat
As COVID-19 continues to bolster the global delivery and logistics market, warehouse robotics startup Geek+ today announced it has extended its series C funding round to $200 million, up from $150 million in July 2019. The company says the deal, which closed earlier this year, will support expansion of its robot-as-a-service program and its relationships with technology and ecosystem partners….
GeekWire
Decisions by Microsoft and Amazon to refrain from sales of facial recognition software to law enforcement agencies could have negative consequences long-term if U.S. lawmakers fail to enact regulations governing the use of the technology, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told computer vision researchers this week. “We need to use this moment to advocate for strong national law, otherwise we’ll see responsible companies leaving the market and others stepping in,” Nadella said, addressing the Conferenc…
TechCrunch
French startup Bellman has raised a $4.5 million (€4 million) seed extension round led by Lakestar with existing investors Connect Ventures and Financière Saint-James also participating. Bellman is focused on improving residential building management.
PlaceTech.
Sound decision-making requires access to timely and accurate market information, yet this information is often limited for informal market participants like farmers and traders in the developing world. Studying how to improve the economics and digitisation of large informal markets, MIT Sloan School of Management Prof Joann de Zegher suggests that crowdsourcing price information from market participants through a carefully-designed information-sharing platform can improve decision-making and inc…
Bisnow
Cushman & Wakefield CEO Brett White, speaking Wednesday on Walker & Dunlop’s Walker Webcast, expressed concerns that CoStar is positioning itself as a competitor to its largest clients, and he said he expects brokerages will consider an alternative to the data giant. CoStar founder and CEO Andy Florance responded Thursday in an interview with Bisnow, saying his company doesn’t intend to compete with brokerage firms.
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