The commercial real estate industry has come far in a short period of time in terms of its adoption of advanced technology. The availability of data from such firms as Real Capital Analytics, RealPage and CoStar is now ubiquitous and it is fueling applications that range from artificial intelligence to online marketplaces.

Crowdfunding has become a mainstream source of capital for real estate borrowers, thanks to such companies as Fundrise in Washington DC, PeerStreet in El Segundo, CA and RealtyMogul in Los Angeles. We as an industry also have our own old-school tech pioneers such as Ten-X and SMS assist, both of which have become unicorns of the venture capital realm.

In fact, it is safe to say that commercial real estate has shed its former reputation as a laggard in tech adoption. As the following pages show, there are a multitude of tech firms that are making inroads in this space and they wouldn't be here if the demand for their applications and services didn't exist. These applications range from real estate-specific platforms for valuation and managing deal flow to technology that supports online brokerages and transaction management. Other products offer industry-specific CRM platforms and social networks for buildings. New generations of online markets are springing up as well, focused on such areas as capital markets sources and pop-up store locations. One constant throughout these examples: data is being used in new and different ways than even a few years ago.

So yes, CRE has not only begun embracing industry tech, but it is doing so with wild abandon. One can see that in the startups that are looking beyond today's technology to develop applications that will be big tomorrow. These companies are leveraging such technologies as artificial intelligence and machine learning to make even better decisions about investment than is possible now.

ARIE BARENDRECHT

It's been five years since CEO Arie Barendrecht founded WiredScore, the international rating standard for buildings' internet connectivity. Since its launch, the company has certified over 1,700 properties, encompassing 450 million square feet of office space in 160-plus markets globally. The firm has worked with some of CRE's biggest landlords and certifies such trophy assets as the Empire State Building in New York, the Shard in London and Chicago's Willis Tower.

The past 12 months have been a time of significant growth for Barendrecht and WiredScore, which grew its global team and added new members to its board. It also opened eight new cities—Chicago, Atlanta, Montreal, Glasgow, Birmingham (UK), Marseille and Germany—and saw a 45% increase in Wired-certified buildings. Additionally, it raised $9 million in Series A funding, allowing for further expansion into new markets, including Dallas and Los Angeles, new product and new service areas.

MICHAEL BECKERMAN

That one of the most active thought leaders in the burgeoning field of CRE tech has an extensive background in media and public relations is of little surprise. Michael Beckerman spent 25 years building Beckerman Public Relations into one of the largest firms of its kind specializing in commercial real estate. He entered the CRE tech arena with the 2012 launch of the News Funnel, a customized news platform. He soon followed that with the Content Funnel, a social media, blogging and marketing platform.

Today, CREtech is arguably the largest research, data and event platform in the field, with one of the largest followings of industry professionals. As for Beckerman, he is one of CRE tech's most popular bloggers and is a frequent speaker at industry events hosted by such groups as ICSC, the MIT Center tor Real Estate and NAIOP. Last year, CREtech and its CEO teamed with ALM Real Estate's RealShare Conference series (now rebranded as GlobeSt.Events) on a major tech component at its largest annual event, the RealShare Apartments Conference.

MICHAEL GREEBY

While the development industry has a rep for being behind the times in embracing technology, Michael Greeby has continually challenged that assumption. As part of that effort, he launched workshopMG LLC, a startup specifically formed to work with entrepreneurial clients to create software and deliver services that streamline the process of retail leasing and tenant space delivery.

Greeby launched workshopMG after spending two decades working for contractors, engineers, developers and a real estate consultant. The CEO spearheaded the creation of a three-pronged digital workflow system—Status Plan, a retail leasing and tenant delivery web app; Digital Design Criteria Manual, a cloud-based information delivery platform focused on shopping centers; and the spark Merchant Information System, a specialty leasing platform and CRM. The digital platform allows brokers and developers to easily use video, slide shows, interactive maps and plans.

So far clients have responded well, evidenced by the many positive testimonials from users. Among workshopMG's users are North American Properties, Columbia Development and the Atlanta Braves, which used DDCM on the Battery, the retail component of their new stadium.

ZACARIAH ROSENBERG

A self-professed “geek at heart,” Zac Rosenberg noticed there were a lot of manual processes in place when it came to deal evaluation. To remedy this, he developed a code loop that would replicate those processes, but at a faster pace. The innovation netted Greystone around $150 million in additional loans within its first few months of use in 2015.

Rosenberg is director of Greystone Labs, a tech incubator aimed at creating solutions to ease the lending process for clients and ultimately help drive business to the New York City-based firm's originators. Leading the development of an analytics platform that serves up customized property data, his mission for the past four years has been to drive the innovations that will change multifamily lending. Leveraging AI and machine learning, Rosenberg helped Greystone Labs crack the code on how to combine instant property insights and direct access to financing to help property owners unlock value and maximize investments.

In short, Rosenberg's efforts through Greystone Labs are transforming the way commercial loans are done, so far feeding $2.5 billion in loans through the company's automated and proprietary loan processing system. In recognition of his work, he was honored with FHA's Creative Genius Award in 2016. He is also a subcommittee member of the Fannie Mae tech initiative.

AARON SEABAUGH

Under Aaron Seabaugh's leadership, Common Areas has taken steps to solve CRE's “silo problem” between companies that work together. The solution he came up with was a highly configurable and customizable operations platform. The cloud-based platform connects the entire CRE value chain across a given deal's life cycle—from concept and feasibility to ultimate development, sale or demolition—via collaborative software that expedites the exchange of data, documents and workflow.

As CTO of the Tustin, CA-based company, Seabaugh oversees all aspects of Common Areas' tech platform, including product development, design and execution; strategic planning; vendor management; and hardware infrastructure. In short, he implements the overarching vision of Common Areas: to create tools that make the role of property managers easier.

Since joining the Common Areas in 2016, Seabaugh has helped to grow annual revenue from $640 million to more than $2.4 billion. The 19-year tech industry veteran was also awarded a patent for a web-based visual development environment that enabled non-technical users to implement business processes.

GORDON SMITH

Gordon Smith's long and illustrious career includes of some of the most distinguished names in the traditional CRE business, such as CBRE and Fortress Investment Group. He entered the proptech arena in 2014, when he helped launch Ten-X, an online CRE marketplace. Smith developed the company's go-to-market strategy and recruited its senior leadership team, which is still in place today. Over the next two years, Ten-X Commercial grew to more than 350 professionals, and generated in excess of $3 billion in sales volume in 2016. That success led to the firm's 2017 sale to a major private equity firm at a valuation that at the time represented the largest proptech exit to date.

Early last year, Smith leveraged his experience to launch biproxi, a technology platform designed specifically for middle-market real estate agents. Powered by data on 32 million US commercial properties, Biproxi provides a free commercial MLS and marketing platforms and tools for sales and leasing.

Since its launch, biproxi's MLS has grown to 60,000 listings with an aggregate value of over $70 billion. The company is also launching an incentive model that pays a percentage of revenue generated by users referred to biproxi. It's also planning the launch of its Live Offer platform, which allows agents to receive real-time competitive offers for their listings, as well as a new research and transaction tool.

DIANE VRKIC

Widely touted as one of the most innovative CEOs in proptech, Diane Vrkic is founder of Waypoint, a smart asset management solution that helps CRE professionals streamline workflows while improving asset value through operational efficiencies. Founded in 2000, the platform provides market insights, financial analytics and workflow collaboration that allows users to optimize building and team performance. It also aggregates data to provide portfolio insights and reporting tools that uncover previously hidden asset values.

Vrkic led Waypoint through a year of growth in 2018, bringing thousands of new buildings onto the platform and growing total recurring revenue by 350%. The company now analyzes more than $300 billion in assets under management, accounting for two billion-plus square feet of commercial space in some 13,000 properties.

Waypoint recently expanded into the New York City market, adding three employees to the 20 or so who work at its San Francisco headquarters. Vrkic hopes to double the size of her firm over the course of 2019.

ASHKAN ZANDIEH

Early this year, CRE entrepreneur Ashkán Zandieh became chief intelligence officer for CREtech, a platform connecting the technology and commercial real estate industries. He oversees market research, thought leadership and content efforts for the New York City-based firm. The new role was the result of the merger between CREtech and RE:Tech, the tech consulting and research agency Zandieh founded in 2013. He spent the past five years growing RE:Tech into a leading research and proptech advocacy organization for the worldwide commercial real estate tech community.

Zandieh is also the founder of PropertyIDX.com (formerly the Falkon App), an investment sales marketplace that provides listings and market data on New York City properties. Brokers, agents and landlords alike can use the app's real-time data to generate leads, increase property visibility and boost deal flow.

The “serial entrepreneur” is widely acclaimed as a thought leader and expert on technology's impact on real estate, he is a frequent source for industry and broader business publications. The TEDx speaker also hosted the world's first real estate tech demo day in 2012, and then went on to host a real estate tech “hackathon” in 2013.

An accomplished broker in his own right, Zandieh previously worked for ABS Partners. There, he focused solely on advising tech companies, startups and co-working spaces.

APTO

A customer relationship and deal management software for commercial real estate, Apto was built by and for brokers and provides a web-based solution for managing customer relationships, properties, deals, back-office and listings. With the ubiquitous Salesforce.com platform serving as its foundation, Apto allows users to manage the lifecycle of a deal on the same interface. Features include project management, automated tasks, appointment setting, renewal management, collaboration, back-office, and forecasting.

Founder Tanner McGraw a seasoned CRE executive with a decade of brokerage experience, became frustrated with the lack of technology available in his industry and decided to do something about it. As a result, he created his own product during the Great Recession, earned VC funding and Apto was born in 2012.

Since its launch, the Apto team has added new features such as an interactive deals board, mapping functionality, intelligent call lists, plus geo-targeted news. In a June 2018 survey, Apto customers reported that using Apto saves them an average of 6 hours a week and they've estimated a 610% return on investment for their Apto purchase. The company's customers include multinational brokerages such as JLL, CBRE, NKF and Cushman & Wakefield in addition to thousands of independent brokers around the world.

Helmed today by CEO Angela Tucci, the Denver-based company just came off of another funding round that generated a total of $20.4 million. Named one of the fastest-growing private companies in the US by Inc. magazine, Apto has indeed progressed well beyond its humble beginnings as a CRM, but remains razor-focused on its original mission of building tools brokers love.

CBRE

Forecasting that technology would increasingly drive fierce competition in the industry, CBRE adopted the mindset that IT must be an integral part of all aspects of the CRE business. As a result, the Los Angeles-based company recruited Chandra Dhandapani to serve as its chief digital and technology officer in 2016. The Fortune 500 firm brought Dhandapani on for her expertise in technology and the real estate capital markets. She spent 17 years as a senior executive for Capital One Financial, where she and her team were responsible for executing technology that provided desktop, online and mobile capabilities to customers and staff.

Over the course of three years, Dhandapani and her team have blazed trails through was through the technology and digital realm, bringing together the industry's top digital talent to work on a variety of platforms and digital solutions. The team has been diligently delivering new products, such as CBRE 360. Since renamed Host, the employee and/or tenant experience platform fuses concierge services with tech. Another product is Floored, a 3D space visualization tool. CBRE has also made investments in proptech-focused companies through venture capital funds Fifth Wall Ventures and MetaProp.

Already the world's largest CRE services firm, CBRE is now also known as one of the most digitally fluent companies in the world. In fact, the amount it's has invested in technology in 2017 alone reportedly exceeds the total profits of many of its competitors.

COMPSTAK INC.

New York City-based CompStak Inc. envisions a commercial real estate industry in which accurate and transparent data leads to better, faster deals for everyone. The network has been built on a foundation of trust, a commitment to collaboration, and a belief that transparency and technology can improve business across the board.

Driven by a team led by co-founder and CEO Michael Mandel, firm's success rests upon its ability to move the informal exchange of transaction data from offline to online. To accomplish this, CompStak had to prove to brokers, appraisers and researchers that their private stores of lease and sales comps were most valuable when traded for newer, analyst-reviewed comps. The insight gleaned from more accurate data would then enable users to make better, faster business decisions.

CompStak Exchange is an exclusive platform for brokers, appraisers and researchers to get analyst-reviewed comps and property details at no charge. And through CompStak Enterprise and CompStak Analytics, lenders, landlords and investors can access transaction data and market analytics at a granular level.

The team's efforts have borne fruit; since 2012 CompStak has seem monumental growth across its platforms. To date, it has received more than 1.5 million transaction records from its network, which includes tens of thousands of CRE professionals and such major CRE players as Tishman Speyer, Wells Fargo, Vornado and Boston Properties, along with virtually every major brokerage nationwide.

CREDIFI

After the 2008 financial crisis, during which loan defaults contributed to many bank failures, Ely Razin started looking into the multi-trillion-dollar CRE finance market. The Thompson Reuters executive noticed that despite its size, the segment was not transparent, and the little data that was available was scattered and unstructured. Within that unfortunate observation, he saw opportunity.

And so in 2014, Razin launched CrediFi with the support of Battery Ventures, with the goal of providing comprehensive visibility into the market. CrediFi's financial data and analytics are powered by a database of seven million-plus assets across the commercial property spectrum.

With a focus on spotting opportunities and minimizing risk, the company is rapidly forging a path in CRE fintech. With 65 employees in offices in New York and Tel Aviv, CrediFi tracks $13 trillion in securitized and balance-sheet loans. All of this is backed by millions in global capital; to date the firm has raised more than $29 million from a long list of VC players.

CREXI

The Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. marketplace and tech platform designed to conduct business through such tools as transaction management applications. It's has grown into an invaluable tool for many of the brokers and investors who use the platform. CREXi displays properties available for sale or lease in all asset classes, which can then be drilled down to specific markets.

Since former Auction.com VP Mike DeGiorgio founded Marina Del Rey, CA-based CREXi in 2015, the platform has accumulated transactions at a rapid pace. In four years more than $450 billion worth of transactions have been facilitated through CREXi. Some of these deals were propelled along by the innovations the firm has added to its product line—namely, tools allowing users to automate marketing efforts, access real-time insights and move between desktop and mobile devices.

Last year was particularly robust for the CREXi team, which has grown to more than 50 employees and raised capital in another financing round. The $11 million in Series A financing, led by Jackson Square Ventures, brought CREXi's total funding to $24 million.

DEALPATH

San Francisco-based Dealpath is a cloud-based CRE deal management platform for real estate investment and development teams. Founded in 2014 by Kenter Wu, Andy Lee and CEO Mike Sroka (who has served stints at Fanhood and Zynga), Dealpath is backed by some top venture capital firms and strategic investors, including 8VC, LeFrak, Bechtel and, most recently, JLL Spark.

Dealpath seeks to eliminate manual and repetitive tasks with a menu of collaboration tools, workflow automation, reporting, pipeline tracking and visualized deal analytics. To date, the platform has hosted more than $1 trillion in transactions, representing a 100% increase since May 2018. Further, the risk-adjusted ROI on its deals averages 475%. Most recently, company also expanded its footprint from its West Coast roots, opening a New York City office to service its growing customer base, and made several important upgrades to its platform.

DealPath can integrate with other industry platforms like CompStak, and has native integrations with Dropbox, Google Maps/Street View and Microsoft Azure. According to JLL Spark, DealPath customers have been able to reduced due diligence and underwriting errors by as much as 18% through improved communication, centralized information and process standardization. By automatically collecting and formatting data into custom real estate templates, users reduce deal turnaround time by an average of 87%.

HONEST BUILDINGS

The Honest Buildings network enables building owners to connect with brokers, service providers, architects, lenders and tenants. The firm gets its data by sweeping public records for base layers of building information and builds maps for context. Service providers and building owners also have the ability to upload details on projects and available opportunities.

In launching Honest Buildings in 2012, CEO Riggs Kubiak and product head Geoffrey Lewis sought to create capital planning and project management software specifically aimed to real estate owners. Companies such as Oxford, SL Green, Brookfield, Hines, Invesco and Beacon Capital Partners and JBG Smith uses Honest Buildings' products and services to increase transparency into project management processes, aggregate data to better estimate future costs and subsequently reduce the time needed to complete projects.

In tandem with a multitude of industry awards the Honest Buildings team received in 2018, the company posted record growth. It closed a Series B funding round with $30 million from a strategic group of investors, bringing the total capital raised by Honest Buildings to $50 million. Those funds helped the company grow by over 1,000% in 24 months to more than $16 billion in project volume today. Additionally, it introduced two-way integration with MRI Software as well as a new Capital Planning platform that allows for real-time collaboration.

Those advancements, combined with a slew urge in new clients, also drove the expansion of Honest Buildings' C-suite. Newly named chief revenue officer Amy Pisano chief technical officer Bill Hazard join the existing leadership team of Kubiak, Lewis, Crystal Proenza, chief brand and performance officer, and general counsel Michael Jacobson.

IMS

According to Chris Atkinson, Investor Management Services was launched in response to a void in the market that was causing inefficiencies and pain points for private equity real estate firms. Namely, sponsors and owners were spending far too much time on non-core activities such as distribution calculations, cash and document management, and investor relations and communications.

So when IMS was introduced to the market in 2015, the all-in-one platform soon became a game changer in the investment management software space. For instance, it developed the industry's first cash flow model to calculate complex investor waterfall distributions. The platform also includes a customizable investor dashboard and CRM, investor statements and document management and sharing. Investors have 24/7 access to key documents and the history of their CRE investments on a mobile-friendly platform.

In its first three years, IMS grew to more than 350 clients and 43,000 investors, and seen revenue growth triple year over year. Atkinson, who joined the Charlotte, NC-based company as CEO in 2017 after spending 20 years in the operational software space, is committed to further driving IMS' growth and market-leading position.

His efforts have not been in vain; IMS received three “Best Place to Work” awards in 2018 and grew its headcount to 75 full-time staffers. The company continues to see double- and triple-digit annual increases in investor adoption, distributions and investor communications. IMS also doubled its Net Promoter Score to earn industry-leading marks in customer experience and satisfaction. According to IMS, its customers see a 544% increase in productivity, saving 1,181 hours annually—that's the equivalent of more than 147 work days, or 22 hours per week.

JLL

Though it had a strong reputation as a forward-thinking company, CRE services firm JLL has recently taken significant steps to foster a culture of innovation and lead the digital transformation of CRE. As part of that effort, the it recruited some of proptech's brightest minds, including former IMB executive Sanjay Rishi as the new CEO of its Americas corporate solutions business.

Last July, it brought in former Google executive Vinay Goel for the newly created position of chief digital officer. Formerly product development director for the tech giant, Goel also worked with such companies as Oracle, Intel and CheckPoint Software. Goel is charged with for determining how to the Chicago-based firm's real estate databases and other assets to create new products and processes clients.

A few months after Goel came on board, JLL acquired ValuD Consulting, a provider of IBM software integration and consulting services in both US and India. The October 2018 acquisition added 300 experts to JLL's global Technology Solutions team. That deal followed two other strategic acquisitions by JLL. In 2015 it bought Corrigo, a pioneer in cloud-based facility management software, and followed with the 2016 acquisition of BRG, rolling the workplace technology consulting company into the JLL brand to form its digital solutions service line.

In addition to coming on as the founding industry partner of the MIT Center for Real Estate's newly established Real Estate Innovation Lab, JLL built a number of market-leading platforms. They include Blackbird, a next-gen GIS for site selection; RED, a data and insights platform for corporate real estate; and MarketSphere, a proprietary database of real estate fundamentals featuring some 472,000 office and industrial properties in 58 markets across North America.

That doesn't even include the activity of JLL Spark, the business JLL launched in 2017 to extend its proptech expertise and service offerings. Spearheading the effort are co-CEOs Mihir Shah and Yishai Lerner, who came to JLL with extensive track records in proptech startups.

JLL Spark made its first acquisition in in early 2018 when it bought Stessa, a SaaS-based portfolio management platform for small-to-medium commercial property investors. The company soon followed with the $100-million JLL Spark Global Venture Fund. Focusing on seed and Series A investments, as well as select later stage rounds, the fund provides not only financing but also guides and nurtures proptech startups. Since the fund's launch last summer, Shah and Lerner have led 10 strategic investments for JLL Spark. Among the companies that received capital infusions are Skyline.AI, Dealpath and Honest Buildings, as well as Jones, a startup tackling liability insurance issues; tenant experience platform HqO; VergeSense, an AI-powered SaaS platform; and flexible office space platform Hubble.

MATTERPORT

Matterport has been the industry leader in immersive 3D technology and VR/AR, creating virtual experiences for users paired with print-ready 4K photography.

Founded in 2011 by CTO Dave Gausebeck, Matt Bell and Mike Beebe, Matterport originally focused on residential space. In the past four years, the company has experienced quadruple-digit revenue growth along with significant market momentum, including geographic expansion into APAC and EMEA plus vertical market expansion beyond residential real estate to include commercial real estate, e-commerce, construction management, home improvement, furnishings and decor, property insurance, hotels and vacation rentals, retail space planning, forensics animation, travel, engineering, along with a host of other industries.

Last year the leadership team brought in RJ Pittman to serve as CEO. The former eBay executive is currently leading Matterport through a strategic business transformation. The company also recently hired new a chief design officer, Dave Lippman, and Lou Marzano, VP of hardware R&D and manufacturing, to help accelerate its products and service offerings.

The firm recently unveiled Matterport Cloud 3.0, a subscription-based platform that expands access to its 3D technology and boosts the power of Matterport's Pro2 camera by giving new users the ability to transform 360-degree and panoramic imagery from entry-level spherical lens cameras into Matterport 3D's fully immersive tech.

Since its launch, the company has captured approximately 1.6 million spaces in fully immersive 3D, with the intent to increase to 100 million spaces by eliminating the hardware and cost-related barriers of 3D-capture technology. Matterport spaces have also been viewed nearly one billion times.

So far Matterport has raised more than $70 million from a host of investors. The company has over 200 employees plus 2,600 global partners.

REONOMY

Condense three days of research into five minutes. Source potential new deals, quickly run comps for thousands of properties, identify in Opportunity Zones, find a franchise that is up for sale and rapidly research commercial refinance deals. All of the data necessary to complete that to-do list is available on Reonomy's data platform. Staffed by talent who are commercial real estate veterans, data scientists, and platform designers, Reonomy uses a high-level of science to analyze data patterns and just to be sure, it also executes its output through strict, repeatable validation steps.

All told, the system has uncovered ownership information for over 49 million commercial properties across the US. With Reonomy's data platform, one can also see a commercial property's sales history, zoning information, loan history, sales information, operating income and debt information.

Co-founded by CEO Richard Sarkis and Charlie Oshman in 2013, the platform has attracted millions of dollars in funding from the likes of debt investor Silicon Valley Bank, SoftBank, Sapphire Ventures and Bain Capital, WeWork's lead investor.

Based in New York City, Reonomy has approximately 80 employees and, so far, has received $68.2 million in funding. Last year, it embarked on a national expansion strategy provided 99% coverage across the US, accounting for more than 50 million commercial properties covering 3,000-plus counties.

Fresh off of securing some $40 million in venture capital, Reonomy just moved into its new office space and signed CBRE to the Reonomy platform. With multiple banks, institutional investors, international and national brokerages, retailers, insurance companies, and other business entities using their products and integrations, the company plans to continue improving their suite of products as well as pursue international expansion, starting with Western Europe and Canada this year.

VTS

With 10 billion square feet managed on its platform, 188 employees working across six offices in North America and Europe, 34,000 users running their businesses on its software and $107 million in VC funding, View The Space is making waves in the commercial real estate IT industry.

VTS was founded in 2011 by Nick Romito and Ryan Masiello, who recognized how much the CRE industry needed a technology platform that could seamlessly centralize leasing activity, analytics and marketing. The former commercial property brokers now serve as the respective CEO and chief strategy officer for the leasing and asset management platform, which has a client roster riddled with the biggest names in CRE.

Over the years VTA formed partnerships with several industry players, including integrations with a number of other popular CRE tech platforms. Yet perhaps its biggest move was the 2016 acquisition Hightower, of its main competitor. A year after the deal, VTS had cemented a dominant position in CRE tech—its customer base grew by 87% to 28,000 users including 180 new clients, and the platform's portfolio grow by 112% to seven billion square feet of commercial space in 28 countries.

In 2018 the company grew its European presence exponentially and expanded its leadership team with the hiring of seasoned Silicon Valley marketing executive Amy Millard as its first chief marketing officer. In also unveiled VTS MarketView, a real-time benchmarking and market analytics took for CRE. Most recently, the New York City-based company unveiled plans for VTS Marketplace, an end-to-end CRE marketplace powered by nine billion square feet of real-time data. In addition to marketing and leasing space, agency brokers will be able to run the entire leasing process online using current market data to accurately price space and negotiate leases. Meanwhile, tenant reps will be able to search for vacant and soon-to-be-vacated space.

With its entrepreneurial spirit and innovative practices, it is of little surprise that VTS won first place in customer relationship management and marketing at the 2018 CREtech Real Estate Tech Awards.

THE BACKERS: THE CAPITAL BEHIND CRETECH

If the number of CRE startups has risen in recent years, the amount of capital backing them has skyrocketed. According to RE Tech, global investment in proptech startups tripled between 2016 and 2017 to $12.6 billion. And MetaProp's Midyear 2018 Global PropTech Confidence Index, found that 96% of investors are planning to make either the same number or more proptech investments in the next 12 months compared to the preceding year, up from 76% in 2017.

Fortunately for proptech, investors are bullish on the segment and its opportunities. Everyone from traditional investors to real estate powerhouses such as RXR, PGIM Real Estate, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL and Altus Group, have targeted the group of late. But the first cohort of investors remains its most dominant. Here's a look at some of the most active venture capital firms in CRE tech.

Casey Berman left a role as president of operations for his family-owned and operated real estate firm, Berman Enterprises, to launch Camber Creek in 2009. Joining him in the venture were seasoned investment executive Jeffrey Berman and Jake Fingert, a former Obama White House senior policy advisor.

The three managing directors helped Camber make a name for itself investing in the leading edge of CRE tech. For instance, in 2014 it was the first institutional investor in Latch, the creator of a leading smart access system. It was also an early investor in GoCanvas, which was purchased late last year by private equity firm K1 Investment Management in a $100-million-plus deal.

Last year, Camber participated in an $8-million Series A funding round for construction finance platform Rabbet, and led a Series A round for WhyHotel, an operator of pop-up hotels in newly-built luxury apartment buildings. It also backed two companies that already raised additional funding rounds: Measurabl, a software platform for sustainability data management, benchmarking and reporting, and Bowery, the world's first technology-enabled appraisal firm.

In addition to the monetary benefits the firm brings to its portfolio companies, Camber offers access to a network of later-stage investors, industry professionals and Camber investors, which collectively own, operate and manage over 150 million square feet of real estate in the US.

Los Angeles-based Fifth Wall Ventures, founded by Brendan Wallace and Brad Greiwe, has its eye firmly fixed on technology solutions for what it terms the “Built World”—that is, a world in which we live, work, sleep, consume, move, create, connect and play. Its model and track record are well known, having invested in some of the top industry's top CRE tech ventures. Its outreach is also phenomenal: its real estate partners conduct $375 billion in annual transactions, operate in 85 countries, own or manage 13,000 properties, have developed more than 1.8 billion square feet and have a collective $640 billion worth of assets under management.

Launched in 2015 to bridge the gap between traditional CRE and emerging real estate technology, MetaProp—along with partners such as Columbia University, REBNY and the NYC Economic Development Corp.—has become one of the biggest players in the global proptech community. The New York City-based venture capital and advisory firm was founded by managing director Aaron Block; partner Zach Aarons, who is also a project manager with Millennium Partners; and Clelia Peters, who is president of Warburg Realty and serves as an advisor to MetaProp.

Fresh of the closing of its second venture capital fund (which generated some $40 million), MetaProp has invested in 90-plus startups since 2015, while managing capital for owners and managers of 15 billion square feet of global real estate. Most recently, it teamed up with Enterprise Community Partners to invest $5 million startups that work to address the housing affordability crisis, and opened PropTech Place, a first-of-its-kind innovation hub, in Manhattan.

The firm's partnership with Columbia University on a continuum of accelerator programs has become renowned for its success. In the four years since inception, the program has accumulated more than 100 mentors and 10 corporate partners and supported 33 early stage startups that have raised more than $30 million. MetaProp is the creator and producer of NYC Real Estate Tech Week, sometimes called the “Davos of PropTech.” Presented in 2018 by Blackstone and the NYC EDC, the event is the North America stop of the MIPIM PropTech Summit series. It is also behind many of the sector's research projects, including the biannual Global PropTech Confidence Index.

Finally, Thrive Capital must be acknowledged both for its heft and industry creds. Founded by Jared and Joshua Kushner of New York's Kushner real estate family, it among the first venture capital funds to focus on real estate technology. Now steered primarily by Joshua, Thrive Capital last year raised $1 billion under its sixth flagship fund. One pool of capital will invest $400 million in early stage companies, while the balance has been separated to invest in later-stage companies.

TECH OF TOMORROW: INNOVATORS ON OUR WATCHLIST

The CRE industry is just getting started in its adoption of cutting edge technology. Here are four firms that represent new directions for CRE tech.

In the summer of 2012 in London, as celebrations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee were ramping up, Ross Bailey and a friend create a retail brand called Rock and Rule. It sold limited edition T-shirts and other apparel inspired by the Queen and opened a pop-up store in Soho. Struck by the number of people coming into the store to ask how he had found the space, Bailey had another novel idea: marketplace for short-term space.

That was the genesis of Appear Here, an online platform that lists empty store space for free, allowing retailers to book it in a manner akin to booking a room on Airbnb. The company has secured venture capital funding from several firms—most notable among them was Fifth Wall Ventures, which formed a strategic partnership with the startup in October 2017. Since its launch Appear Here has opened offices in Paris and New York. To date, it's helped more than 180,000 retailers secure pop-up locations and listed 10-plus million square feet of retail space.

Tel Aviv-based Skyline AI knows how to make a splash with a new hire. Last year it tapped none other than Shay Bushinsky for the role of chief data scientist. Bushinsky, together with Amir Ban, created an AI program called Deep Junior, which eventually defeated the legendary chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

Bushinsky's creds are part of Skyline AI's mission to add artificial intelligence to the commercial real estate valuation process. Connected to 130 different data sources—from real estate information to crime statistics and demographics to stock market fluctuations—Skyline AI can detect and exploit market anomalies, identify investment opportunities and discover untapped value creation possibilities, according to the company. Primarily used for multifamily assets, the platform can also provide data analysis and information on the best time to raise rents, renovate and sell.

Skyline has secured $18 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, JLL and others. Last summer, it struck a partnership with Greystone Labs to collaborate on improving the dealmaking and loan underwriting processes. The company, which also has an office in New York City, counts among its clients major institutional and private equity investors, according to CEO Guy Zipori, who co-founded Skyline in 2017 with Or Hiltch, CTO.

Targeting CRE financing, Remissary entered the space with a splash last year, sourcing $750 million for users in its first month alone. The company has signed up some of the world's largest lenders and capital sources, offering the gamut of debt and equity capital.

Remissary's mission is to streamline what is still largely an antiquated process with a platform it describes as “high tech and high touch.” The New York City-based firm was founded by Adi Chugh, who prior to the launch made a career in Wall Street investment banking. Chugh is also president and founder of Maverick Commercial Properties, a private equity and debt financing boutique advisory firm that completed over $5 billion in transactions last year.

The platform uses a proprietary algorithm developed by MIT-trained developers that connects borrowers and lenders through a bespoke matchmaking process. A live representative then sees through the deal through completion. Recent transactions completed by Chugh and his team include a $230-million loan for hotel construction in New York and a $66-million loan for a ground-up multifamily and retail development in the Midwest.

Launched in 2012 with a single Downtown Manhattan Office and then called Urban Compass, Compass has evolved into a nationwide platform of high tech and a robust array of top brokers. Founded by entrepreneurs Ori Allon and Robert Reffkin, it launched with a business model that employed full-time, salaried brokers, who used the company's technology to search for listings and to schedule appointments online.

The focus was strictly on the rental residential market, but it added sales in 2014. It also changed its business model into one that contracted with independent real estate agents, taking a cut of the commission.

Last year, Compass made its official entree into the commercial market with the launch of Compass Commercial on both coasts. It acquired San Francisco's Paragon Real Estate Group in San Francisco and brought on a massive team of New York City brokers from Eastern Consolidated, which had ceased operations in July. Leading the New York metro division are former Eastern Consolidated principals Adelaide Polsinelli and Ronda Rogovin, who were soon joined by Former EC vice chair Robin Abrams and her entire team, Abrams Retail Strategies. The veteran exec was also a vice chair with Lansco Corp., where she spent three decades developing its retail business.

Opening 70 new offices in 2018, Compass now operates in 30 regions with more than 90 locations across the US. Its next challenge is to open offices in international markets.

Compass has raised a total of $1.2 billion from investors such as Founder's Fund, Wellington Management, Institutional Venture Partners, Fidelity Investments and the Softbank Vision Fund. It was also named Mid-Sized Business of the Year by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce in 2015.

Instant Insights /

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