CREtech Partners with ICSC to Bring the Innovation Exchange to RECon in May 2019

Innovation Exchange will feature 20+ of the leading commercial real estate retail tech companies and include curated programming from top industry thought leaders New York, NY (March 6, 2019) — CREtech (CREtech.com), the largest event, data and content platform covering the commercial real estate tech industry, announced that it will once again partner with International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) to host the growing Innovation Exchange at RECon, the largest global gathering of retail r…

Total Investments in Proptech Companies Dropped 23 Percent in 2018

Despite a growing number of startups and investor confidence at an all-time high, the total money being pumped into real estate tech companies dropped last year, a report by data and event platform CREtech found. A total of $9.6 billion was invested into real estate companies in 2018, which was a 23 percent dip from the $12.6 billion raised the year before, according to the report. Proptech experts blamed the sluggish numbers on a changing market with investors more sophisticated, the unce…

Okapi Announce Integration of Weather API to Enrich AI Notifications with External Data

Okapi is excited to announce the inclusion of a new external data source to enrich existing business datasets for its customers. This external data source is combined with datasets provided by the customer, for finding anomalies, root-cause and predictions. The external data source announced today is the weather API. This includes temperature, humidity, snowfall, wind factor, and even location-sensitive metrics such as sea level for buildings found on the coast. “By using sensitivity analy…

How to Navigate Investing in A.I., From Someone Who’s Done It

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Mark Zuckerberg’s “move fast and break things” mantra may no longer be Facebook’s modus operandi, but Silicon Valley’s demand for rapid growth is still strong. And the rise of the competitive landscape of artificial intelligence is only fueling it. Last year, venture capital investment in A.I. start-ups increased 72 percent from the previous year to a record $9.3 billion in the United States, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of …

Big Ideas: “Make leasing office space as easy as booking a flight or buying shoes” with Tom Smith, Co-founder of Truss

As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Smith. He is the co-founder of Truss where he recently helped his company raise a $15 million Series A-2, led by General Catalyst. Truss is the only company to offer price transparency to business owners and entrepreneurs looking for office space, coworking, retail or industrial space. Two previous companies Smith co-founded were acquired for more than $50 million eac…

Convene Co-Founder Sees Sweet Spot Between Co-Working and Events

The collision of the office experience and meetings has been particularly fascinating in recent years, with the emergence of new companies blurring the lines between traditionally separate areas of the work experience. According to Chris Kelly, co-founder and vice chairman of Convene, the evolution of both corporate events and workplaces should lead to hospitality principles entering the mainstream for businesses looking to appeal to the next generation of workers. “Hospitality venues have…

The Tokenization of Real Estate

In what Inveniam Capital Partners (ICP) claims will be the first deal of its kind, the New York-based company plans to tokenize four private real estate and debt transactions, totaling $260 million. Acting as general partner, ICP will structure these transactions as digital tokens, which represent interests in the limited partnerships for each of the deals. Investors will be able to select among four different partnerships: a commercial real estate partnership that is buying a Miami building …

New York City Tries Modular Construction for Affordable Homes

New York City plans to use modular construction for a Brooklyn affordable apartment building as it tests a way to build low-cost housing faster. The proposed 167-apartment complex in the East New York neighborhood is among the first projects the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development selected to finance using this building method. The city hopes that using the technique of stacking factory-produced units will save time and eventually lower costs. “Doing modular is a real…

Can Indoor Farming Fulfill The Dream Of Opportunity Zones?

Opportunity zones and indoor farms are both new frontiers for investment, and one company is seeking to combine them. Zale Tabakman has developed a concept for an indoor farm that grows greens, herbs and vegetables using modular construction, called Local Grown Salads. One LGS farm would be 15K SF and fabricated off-site almost entirely — even the HVAC system, often one of the costliest elements of construction. All the site needs is for the walls, floor and ceiling to be sealed and the water…

Your Apartment’s Name Matters More Than You Think