Proptech Firm RI Marketplace and SharpLaunch Expand Technology Cooperation

Whether for flexspace, software integration, high-value properties, or building commodities transactions, proptech is going mad for marketplaces.

The concept is an older one stretching back though decades of the tech industry. Even for bigger companies, there’s only so much they can create and sell on their own. Even huge corporations run out of resources, whether talent, money, understanding, or attention. Work through a marketplace and you can significantly increase sales and profits without having to create each wheel. Look at Amazon: in Q3 of 2022, 58% of paid units were actually third-party sales working through the company’s marketplace.

So, there will continue to be new marketplaces and deals between marketplaces. That’s what the new announcement from RI Marketplace and SharpLaunch really represents.

RI Marketplace describes itself as an online commercial real estate auction platform. It holds periodic auctions of a variety of properties. A quick look shows mixed-use, hotels, multifamily, retail centers, office, student housing, and more. It offers two-day auction events, absolute auctions with a $1 reserve, custom auctions, and marketplace listings. It’s courting potential investors.

SharpLaunch, on the other hand, targets building owners and both leasing and investment sales brokers. The company provides marketing help to get more attention in shorter turnaround times and has some big broker names on its roster.

A marketplace works best when it can entice both sides of a transaction. That’s apparently what this cooperative venture is attempting to do. “Through this new syndication, SharpLaunch clients’ listings can now be viewed on Marketplace’s Listings page,” the press release said. “This syndication will allow SharpLaunch’s brokers to take advantage of a new, curated, and fast-growing network of highly vetted investors and for Marketplace’s buyers to gain access to more opportunities.”

It’s ultimately necessary to have buyers and sellers meet one another and an inherent weakness if a company’s pull is too much on the one side and less so on the other. However, that’s what the greater concept of marketplaces can play a part. RI can focus on bringing in the investors and let SharpLaunch bring sellers. It’s a more efficient strategy.

“SharpLaunch customers can now easily opt-in to have their sales listings displayed on Marketplace’s Listing page and automatically updated in real time as listing statuses are modified, all with the click of a button,” the release said. The crossover uses application programmer interfaces (APIs) that allow communications of data between the two companies without the need to manually reenter data.

“SharpLaunch’s ability to help streamline marketing operations for busy commercial real estate clients like CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield allows them to quickly and easily publish their listings so they can get back to driving revenue and making an impact at their organization,” the companies said. “For Marketplace buyers, thanks to the platform’s free live listing search, anyone can easily find information on a specific deal and have the opportunity to directly contact the listing brokers for additional information.”