Can PropTech Dream Big Enough For VC Investors?

The money targeting PropTech is getting serious. Earlier this month PropTech venture capital specialist Fifth Wall submitted a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing which showed it had raised $468M for its second fund. And data from CREtech showed that, even when you take out the $6B investment in WeWork by SoftBank, PropTech investment almost tripled to around $4B in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period in 2018.

Knotel adds 1M s/f in first quarter of 2019

Knotel, the flexible office space provider, has finalized five office transactions totaling 93,903 s/f in New York City. The transactions cap a record-breaking first quarter at Knotel, with global growth surging to add another one million square feet under management. The largest transaction is a 43,520 s/f lease at 88 Pine Street in the Financial District. The new space in Orient Overseas Associates’ building encompasses the 4th and 9th floors. Elie Reiss of Skylight Leasing represented K…

Walmart unveils an AI-powered store of the future, now open to the public

Walmart this morning unveiled a new “store of the future” and test grounds for emerging technologies, including AI-enabled cameras and interactive displays. The store, a working concept called the Intelligent Retail Lab — or “IRL” for short — operates out of a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Levittown, N.Y. The store is open to customers and is one of Walmart’s busiest Neighborhood Market stores, containing more than 30,000 items, the retailer says, which allows it to test out technology in a re…

We’re Expanding into Los Angeles as the Largest Online Marketplace for CRE

Our online marketplace is the only platform that offers price transparency for small business owners looking for commercial real estate space, including office space, coworking, retail and industrial space. “Due to the large geographic area in Southern California, entrepreneurs taking the time to do physical tours of their potential office space is a daunting and unproductive task,” said Tom Smith, co-founder of Truss. “We are launching Truss in Los Angeles to streamline the process – from se…

3 Reasons Why Technology Isn’t Replacing Your Broker Any Time Soon

For years, the commercial real estate industry had the unique benefit of holding the keys to exclusive data. In order to gain relevant information on availabilities, comparables, property taxes, and more, consumers had to work directly with brokers. Today’s digital world has transformed the access to these same resources, and in the process, it has forever altered the way we interact, the method in which we deliver services and corresponding expectations.

InfoTycoon Raises $5M Seed to Rebuild Platform on Cloud Stack, Expand into Affordable and Student Housing Sectors

ATLANTA, April 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — InfoTycoon, the multifamily industry’s leading inspections and asset management platform, has raised $5 million in seed funding to make major platform improvements and expand into new housing markets. The company also announced that noted AEC and CRE tech expert, KP Reddy, Founder of Shadow Ventures, will join InfoTycoon as Executive Chairman and interim-CEO….

How AR (Augmented Reality) could affect our retail futures

Ahead of his session at Cushman & Wakefield’s retailiate 2019 event speaking about tech and augmented reality, Michael Valdsgaard, founder of Valdsgaard & Partners and Leader of Digital Transformation at Inter IKEA Systems, takes time out to talk to us about how technology could change the retail property landscape, how property professionals can keep up with change and reveals his childhood gaming passion….

The Proptech Startups Using VR & AR to Reshape Real Estate

According to Goldman Sachs,  virtual and augmented reality (AR) will become an $80 billion market by 2025, and $2.6 billion will be specifically for real estate. The medium is extremely powerful. About 30% of the neurons in the brain are dedicated to vision, compared to only 8% for touch and 2% for hearing. Over the past week, Zillow announced the rollout of their 3D Home tool, which lets real estate agents show immersive VC views of homes for sale….

Four Ways Technology Can Help CRE Lenders

Sophisticated tech tools eliminate tedious busywork and free up commercial property lenders to uncover—and act upon—meaningful insights. For commercial real estate lenders, the process of uncovering, organizing, and interpreting data on a property’s mortgage or debt history has always been a time-consuming and error-prone endeavor. Over the last several years, however, the industry has witnessed the emergence of commercial real estate technology capable of quickly surfacing and aggregating pr…

Sonder and Knotel Near Deals as Real Estate Startups Snap Up Funding

A new breed of real-estate focused startups is attracting a sudden flood of venture money.

The group includes Sonder, a travel rental firm which is finalizing a deal to raise more than $200 million from investors such as Fidelity Investments, according to people familiar with the matter. Just days ago Lyric, a short-term rentals manager, announced it had raised $160 million in equity and debt from Airbnb and other backers.