“That’s when the lightbulb went off in my head. This was the era of the iPhone 4, where you could already stream YouTube, and Apple had just launched FaceTime so I knew you could stream video to a mobile app, I should be able to open the building door from my smartphone too!” ButterflyMX Founder Cyrus Claffey shares more about how the company’s smart intercom system is already being used in nearly half a million apartments in five short years, the effect of the pandemic on the popularity of its offering, and the company’s recent funding round from investors that include Volition Capital, Egis Capital, RiverPark Ventures, and Stifel Financial Corporation.
Real Estate
Orchard Raises Another $69M to Unify the Home Buying and Selling Experience into a Single Digital Platform
For most people, buying a home is the single biggest investment in their lifetime. For existing homeowners, the process becomes a bit more stressful when they need to consider selling their old home. Orchard allows homeowners to manage this delicate balancing act by allowing you to purchase a new home before you have sold your existing property. Orchards agents handle the entire process of getting you into your new home and selling your old home; handling listing, cleaning, and showings. Cofounder Phil DeGisi shares more about how Orchard is making the homeownership process easier and the company’s recent round of funding from investors that include Revolution Growth, FirstMark, Navitas, Accomplice, and Juxtapose.
MeetElise Raises $6.5M for its AI-Powered Assistant for Rentals
COVID has brought contactless to the forefront in situations where technology can replace human interaction. This societal shift has had a significant impact on the real estate industry, forcing it to reexamine how to better serve and communicate in times where in-person interactions are not advisable. MeetElise has built an AI personal assistant that helps leasing agents manage the rental process and respond immediately to prospect leads, questions, and even schedule guided tours. The company’s growth is up 50% during COVID. CEO Minna Song shares more about how the platform is simplifying the rental process with AI, how leasing agents are reclaiming 2-3 hours a day with automation, and the company’s recent funding from investors that include Navitas Capital, AvalonBay Communities, and Equity Residential
EasyKnock Raises Another $20M for its Residential Sales Leaseback Platform
Sales leasebacks have been popular institutionally with REITs and for commercial real estate but EasyKnock makes it accessible for residential homeowners. While we face uncertainty about the future health of the economy, homeowners will need flexibility and may need to tap into the equity they’ve built in their homes. CEO and Cofounder Jarred Kessler shares some insight about how EasyKnock can help homeowners access this equity and stay in their homes, the future of the housing market, and the company’s latest funding round from investors that include Blumberg Capital, QED, Correlation Ventures, FJ Labs, and Moderne.
Northspyre Raises $7.5M to Automate Workflows and Unlock Data for Real Estate Development
While working as a commercial real estate developer, William Sankey was convinced there was a better way to manage complex, multi-million-dollar projects that didn’t involve paper-based workflows, data entry, filing cabinets, and “gut feelings”. He cofounded Northspyre, a cloud intelligence platform that automates workflow and reveals data insights for the CRE industry. AlleyWatch caught up with Sankey to learn more about the company’s product, traction, and recent funding round.
MakeSpace Raises $55M for its Affordable and Flexible On-Demand Storage Solution
In 2012, Rahul Gandhi was living in Brooklyn when Hurricane Sandy hit. The amount of destruction and flooding required the need for temporary storage. That experience led to the founding of MakeSpace with the mission to change the complex, expensive, and labor-intensive experience of self-storage. Fast forward to today and MakeSpace is now available in 31 markets across North America, with over 30,0000 customers and has raised a total of $142.6M across seven rounds. Gandhi shares more about the impressive journey and future plans…
Orchard Raises Another $36M To Let You Buy Your New Home Before Selling Your Old Home
For most people, buying a home is the single biggest investment in their lifetime. For existing homeowners, the process becomes a bit more stressful when they need to consider selling their old home. Orchard, which just rebranded from Perch, allows homeowners to manage this delicate balancing act by allowing you to purchase a new home […]
The PropTech Report: An Open Frontier For Hardware Entrepreneurs
Two constants have guided my professional life: venture capital and real estate. Every year, I eagerly await to see which portfolio will produce greater returns. Today, in the words of the great (fictional) New Yorker George Louis Costanza, “Worlds are colliding!” Enertiv, a New York Angels investment, keeps growing with an impressive client list of property managers and […]
Reonomy Raises $60M to be the Go-To Source for Commercial Real Estate Property Data
With a three-year growth rate of 990%, Reonomy is disrupting the CRE industry by providing the most extensive database of property-centric intelligence available for CRE teams and individual investors. Through its proprietary ML and AI technology, Reonomy connects and centralizes disparate property information into its platform that features over 50M properties and 68M property sales. […]
Blueground Pulls in Another $50M for Your Next Furnished Apartment
Technology is fundamentally changing the concepts of work, play, and live. When it comes to living, as work becomes more connected, more and more people find themselves traveling for extended periods of time and do not want to deal with an impersonal hotel or traditional corporate housing situation. Enter Blueground – the startup founded in […]
Branch Raises $2.4M to be the One Stop Shop for Office Furniture
An old-school CEO and the stereotypical, millennial CEO probably disagree on many factors about the workplace, but one universal belief that has withstood the test of time is that workplaces need furniture. Branch (the company was previously known as Bureau) makes high-quality, office furniture for growing companies, taking care of all the logistics from design to […]