Early-Stage Real Estate Tech: 120+ Companies Building The Industry’s Future

Real estate is a massive asset class representing trillions of dollars in value. To date, the industry has not been thoroughly affected by technology and software, but investment from venture capital investors into technology startups operating in the space has picked up in the last year. Through 2017 year-to-date (6/6/17), investors have already invested $1.46B across 107 deals. At the current run-rate, total dollars invested are expected to exceed 2016 by 25% to $3.4B.

Real estate technology companies are attacking the vertical from a variety of angles and to-date startups have found notable success creating ad-based residential real estate sites. Examples of this include Zillow, Trulia, StreetEasy and more.

Tech companies have not be as successful penetrating the commercial real estate industry. However, some companies like VTS are succeeding in creating platforms for leasing and property management which could end up helping strengthen the category as a whole.

We dug into recent early-stage investments financings (seed or Series A) made to real estate technology companies since 2015 to see where new startups are emerging and mapped them according to the categories in which they operate. Note some companies on the map have gone on to raise past Series A round. Scroll down to see the table with all the startups included in the map.

We define real estate technology as the software tools and platforms used by different participants in the real estate industry, including brokers, investors, real estate-focused lenders and mortgage providers, property owners, and managers, as well as buyers. The category includes online real estate rental and buying guides. We do not include travel rental services like Airbnb.

We’ve divided the map between commercial and residential applications. In circumstances where certain companies straddled both categories we mapped them according to primary use case. Additionally, following industry standards, we placed companies that include a focus on the multi-family market in the commercial category.

Please click on the map to enlarge. The map is not meant to be exhaustive of companies in the space.

The categories in our map are defined accordingly:

Listing & Search Services (residential & commercial) – This category includes startups that help users search for and list commercial and residential real estate. Examples of such companies include CREXi (commercial), and easyProperty (residential).

Marketplaces and Liquidity (residential) – This category helps match residential real estate buyers with sellers and, in certain circumstances, provides sellers with direct liquidity. Examples of companies in this category include Offerpad and Knock.

Marketing/Visualization (residential & commercial) – This category includes startups that provide 3D visualization, virtual reality touring and photography to market properties remotely. Companies attacking this area include IrisVR.

Tech-enabled Brokerage (residential) – Startup brokerages that employ in-house brokers with their own listing services. Examples of companies in this category include Triplemint.

Property and Leasing Management (commercial) – These startups offer tools for property managers and landlords to manage property as well as improve the leasing process. Examples of such companies include commercial real estate property management tool VTS as well as Nestio, which caters to landlords and brokers working in multi-family buildings, and has raised investment from Trinity Ventures and Freestyle Capital, among others.

Property Management (residential) – This category includes companies that offer tools for landlords and homeowners to manage residential property. Cozy Services is a startup in this category that has raised capital from investors like Google Ventures and Social Capital, among others.

Leasing and Renting (residential) – This category includes listing and search startups that connect rental customers straight to the property owner and cut out the broker. Additionally, it includes companies that offer added value in streamlining or improving upon the leasing and renting process for landlords and tenants; startups in this category include Rezi and Flip.

Data, Valuation, and Analytics (residential & commercial) – This category includes companies that provide data and analytics tools to property managers and investors. Examples of such companies include property value and forecasting tools HouseCanary and REalyse.

O-2-O Services – Companies here are primarily Asia-based online-2-offline (O-2-O) businesses where users complete transactions online. Haozu.com is the only O-2-O company on our map. 

Mortgage and Lending (residential & commercial) – This category includes mortgage lenders as well as software services that aggregate credit and banking data for borrowers and lenders. Examples of companies in this category include Morty.

Agent Services (residential) –  Companies in this category build products that serve real estate agents. Amitree, for example, helps agents manage their clients.

Investment/Crowd Financing (residential & commercial) – This category includes crowdfunding platforms that allow investors to participate in debt or equity financing for real estate, or both. The category includes RealtyShares.

Agent Matching (residential) – Startups in this category connect users directly to qualified agents. HomeLight is a good example of an agent matching company.

Title and Closing (residential) – This category includes companies that assist in title insurance and closing. Qualia Labs is an example of a company in this category.

Corporate and Shared Housing (residential) – This category includes companies that offer platform services or networks of shared and/or corporate housing with full furnishings, and/or community offerings. Examples of companies in this category include Common.

Events and Alternative Office (commercial) – This category includes platform companies connecting customers to alternative office and/or events space. Examples of companies operating in this include Croissant.

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