Disruption is Coming to the Building Industry

The construction industry is on the cusp of significant disruption that will forever change how buildings are bought, designed, made, and assembled. The summation of the technological forces being applied to the construction industry is termed PropTech. PropTech investment in 2016, according to Re:Tech, was a record at $4.2 billion which tripled to $12.6 billion in 2017. Data from 2018 is expected to outstrip 2017 easily. The reason is that construction employs 7% of the world’s working popul…

Keller Williams’ killer tech strategy? Copy Redfin.

Keller Williams is seeking to copy Redfin’s tech to beat the brokerage at its own game. Keller Williams President Josh Team noted that the real estate industry is seeing an “arms race” — and the company is looking at Redfin because “they’re doing some really great things. The brokerage thinks it can “copy the technology of Redfin before Redfin can take the market share,” Inman reported. Team compared the strategy to Google Plus, the social network once touted as a Facebook killer. Google h…

Colliers International Launches Partnership with Basking Automation

As flex-working increases in popularity, maximizing the potential and effectiveness of office space is a challenge for many companies. To provide occupiers in EMEA and North America access to real-time occupancy analytics technology, Colliers International is partnering with Basking Automation, a Colliers Proptech Accelerator powered by Techstars company. The market for occupancy analytics in commercial office space is growing rapidly, driven by increasing office densification, poor space uti…

ULI BOSTON “SHARK TANK” COMPETITION RECAP

On March 14th, Urban Land Institute (ULI) Boston’s Real Estate Tech Councilpresented the second annual “Shark Tank” Competition. The event featured keynote speaker Dr. Andrea Chegut, director of MIT’s Real Estate Innovation Lab, followed by five-minute pitches from three innovative prop-tech companies, all competing to be named the most investable company by the four “sharks” – Sara Cassidy of AEW, Duncan Gilkey of The Davis Companies, Minta Kay of Goodwin Procter and Chris Mayer of Suffolk Cons…

Data + Listening = Not Leaving Money On The Table For Office Owners

Listening to your tenants is well and good, but creating office buildings that people actually want to work in requires an additional step: analysing what they actually do. The ability to utilise data to measure how people use offices and the districts around them is revolutionising the ability of office owners to understand how best to design buildings and the amenities to add, according to panelists at Bisnow London’s Creative Office bash. That is especially the case when this is combined w…

Armis nabs $65M Series C as IoT security biz grows in leaps and bounds

Armis is helping companies protect IoT devices on the network without using an agent, and it’s apparently a problem that is resonating with the market, as the startup reports 700 percent growth in the last year. That caught the attention of investors, who awarded them a $65 million Series C investment to help keep accelerating that growth.

‘Retail apocalypse’ now: Analysts say 75,000 more U.S. stores could be doomed.

Widespread closures have roiled the retail industry, but many more stores are likely to shut down in coming years to keep up with a shift to online shopping, according to a report by investment firm UBS.

An estimated 75,000 stores that sell clothing, electronics and furniture will close by 2026, when online shopping is expected to make up 25 percent of retail sales, according to UBS. Roughly 16 percent of overall sales are made online.

Lemonade picks up $300 million Series D led by SoftBank Group

Lemonade, the insurance startup founded by Daniel Schreiber and Shai Wininger, has today announced a $300 million Series D financing led by the SoftBank Group, with participation from Allianz, General Catalyst, GV, OurCrowd and Thrive Capital. Lemonade uses an AI-powered bot to digitize the insurance-buying experience for renters and home owners. Users simply download the app and answer a few questions before getting a quote, which starts at $5/month but can surely go up based on a number of f…

The startup behind Walmart’s shelf-scanning robots

Earlier this week, Walmart announced a wide-scale expansion of in-store technology. The news came, of course, as the superstore chain is fighting Amazon’s encroachment with everything it has. The list includes several robotics technologies — a category in which Amazon has been invested for several years, beginning with the acquisition of Kiva systems in 2012. Pittsburgh startup Bossa Nova Robotics has been a big player in Walmart’s ambitions for a while now, as well. Back in 2017, the retail g…

HB Reavis CEO: The Reason You Don’t Like WeWork Is Because It Makes You Look Lazy

WeWork and the current wave of flexible office providers haven’t just disrupted the existing office real estate world: They have shown it to be lazy and out of touch with the reality of the way people use buildings. That was the challenging assertion of HB Reavis UK Chief Executive Steven Skinner in opening remarks at Bisnow London’s Creative Office Bash, held at the company’s 33 Central building in the City.