Curated daily by our industry experts. Stay informed on how tech is shaping the real estate industry with these important headlines.
DALLAS NEWS
One of the country’s fastest-growing office furniture and equipment companies is investing with a Dallas-based shared office firm. Varidesk is the lead investor in a new round of funding for Common Desk, the 7-year-old coworking firm with locations in North Texas and Austin. Common Desk and Varidesk have collaborated previously.
TECHCRUNCH
Airbnb has today announced the acquisition of Urbandoor, a platform that offers extended stays to corporate clients. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Urbandoor was founded in 2015, according to Crunchbase. One of the big differentiators between Urbandoor and Airbnb was not only its focus on business travelers, relocation, etc., but also that Urbandoor negotiated directly with multifamily owners rather than renters….
CREtech
Leading Research Platform in the Commercial Real Estate Tech Industry Releases Monthly Report on VC Funding and Investments New York, NY (August 6, 2019) — CREtech (cretech.com), the leading event, content and connectivity platform for the commercial real estate technology industry released the Monthly Funding Snapshot Report on venture capital investments for July 2019. The report concluded that investments in private real estate tech companies reached $2.5 billion, a 126% month-to-month i…
COMMERCIAL OBSERVER
The signs are everywhere. Investment in real estate technology increased 607 percent in Q1 2019 compared to the previous year. Real estate technology-focused events like ICSC, Realcomm and CREtech continue to break attendance records. In survey after survey, a majority of real estate executives have expressed a desire to embrace innovation.
REMARKABLY
The Seattle-based company has raised a venture round led by Wildcat Venture Partners to drive enterprise sales growth, technology integrations, and further development of its disruptive multifamily portfolio performance software SEATTLE — August 6, 2019 — Remarkably, a multifamily portfolio performance software company focused on helping property owners and managers improve cash flow and asset value, today announced it has secured a fundraising round for up to $4.1 million in seed round …
WSJ
Amazon.com AMZN -1.73% may have taken over the majority of your purchases, but the buck stops at real estate, apparently. Last week, the retail giant said it was partnering with the nation’s largest residential brokerage company Realogy Holdings Corp. to refer motivated consumers on Amazon’s platform to real-estate agents from Realogy RLGY 2.69% ’s brands such as Coldwell Banker and Century 21….
THE REAL DEAL
The Corcoran Group is officially embracing lead generation. The brokerage is launching an exclusive partnership with Swedish firm AdFenix beginning August 1 that will automatically create Facebook ad campaigns for every new listing on Corcoran’s website, and use an algorithm powered by artificial intelligence to target potential homebuyers. Agents will also gets ads for themselves and their teams through the partnership, which is entirely paid for by Corcoran. Through AdFenix, there is als…
MULTI-HOUSING NEWS
Since it began taking up space for its coworking business, WeWork has been the talk of the commercial real estate industry. Its heavy spending has raised concerns that it is a volatile business model, especially in the face of a potential downturn—and the numbers speak for themselves. Last year, the company’s revenue doubled, but so did its losses. What’s more, Japanese bank SoftBank curbed its investment in the company from $16 billion to $2 billion.
BISNOW
On a recent day this summer, Dana Hathaitham stood in the middle of Kitchen United’s Pasadena location and watched the action unfold. Delivery drivers carrying satchels with Grubhub written on the sides walked in and out of the kitchen to pick up food. A group of people — a combination of local office workers and families — waited in line to place their orders at one of the four computer kiosks. An expediter fetched food and shouted out the names of those waiting for their pickup orders.
REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
Cushman & Wakefield announced a strategic partnership with Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm focused on technology solutions for the global real estate industry. Fifth Wall’s second fund is one of the largest real estate venture capital funds raised to date, closing at $503 million and more than doubling the size of its initial fund, which closed in May 2017 at $212 million. “We’re committed to identifying and partnering with organizations that can help us develop the next generation …
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