Deals round-up

Propy, a global property marketplace that is based on Blockchain, has partnered with Escrow Agent Japan, the largest escrow service provider in Japan.

This partnership was created in order to expand Propy’s offering into the Japanese market and to launch a transaction platform equipped with blockchain for its local real estate market.

Propy is part of the REACH accelerator program which is backed by Second Century Ventures, the VC arm of the National Association of Realtors.

Thomas Lepelaars CEO Nodalview

Belgian-based Nodalview, which allows real estate agencies to produce professional quality pictures and virtual tours of properties, has raised €1.7m from VC firm Volta Ventures.

This funding is set to accelerate international growth across Europe, specifically in Germany, Spain, and Italy. The company will continue to invest in its development team to enhance its technology and provide broader AI-powered smartphone-based visual marketing solutions for the real estate sector.

Nodalview will invest in hiring further development, sales, marketing, and customer success specialists in order to support its growth.

Founded in 2016, Nodalview is used in France, Belgium and Switzerland by 6,000 real estate agents.

Fornova CEO, Dori Stein

Fornova, a hotel distribution and business intelligence specialist, has raised $7m in its latest funding round.

A/O Proptech led this funding round, which included investment from existing VC investors DTCP, JAL Ventures and Forestay Capital.

A/O and Fornova have created a design partnership which will mean that Fornova’s Hotels BI platform, used to collect data and simplify transactions, into A/O’s 150 hotels.

This investment aims to transform how hotels manage their revenue, performance, and guest data by adding transparency and digitisation.

Air-taxi company Volocopter has raised €50m in its Series C funding round led by automotive group Zhejiang Geely Holding.

Geely Holding, which owns car brands Volvo and Lotus, has entered a joint venture with Volocopter to bring air mobility to China. The founders, Alexander Zosel and Stephan Wolf, remain the largest shareholder.

Existing investors joined the round, including Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz.

This closing will increase the total capital that Volocopter has raised to €85m.

The new funds are to be used to bring the VoloCity aircraft to commercial launch within the next three years.

Savvy Lane co-founders, COO Beata Miklos and CEO Andrew Miklos

House-buying platform Savvy Lane has announced $2m of investment from an unidentified investor.

The husband and wife team, Andrew and Beata Miklos, founded Savvy Lane in 2015 in order to use technology to make buying or selling a home cheaper and easier.

Savvy Lane is set to use the funds to grow its team from eight in-house employees and 12 real estate agents, to triple. The firm aims to expand its operations in California, Washington, and Oregon, further down the USA’s West Coast.

CEO MSCI Henry Ferndandez

Climate change scenario analyst Carbon Delta has been acquired by MSCI Barra, a subsidary of investment company MSCI.

The undisclosed deal is set to close next month.

This move was made to combine Carbon Delta’s modelling technology with MSCI’s climate risk capabilities to form MSCI Climate Value-At-Risk, a metric that calculates the impact of climate change on a company’s market value and help investors quantify risk.

CEO of QuintoAndar, Gabriel Braga

Brazilian-based real estate startup QuintoAndar has raised $250m in its Series D funding round, making the company a unicorn.

This round was led by investment giant SoftBank, along with participation from Dragoneer and existing investors General Atlantic and Kaszek Ventures.

QuintoAndar was founded in 2013 to make the process of finding a home easier, and help landlords manage their properties. This raise brings its total investment amount to $335m.

The company is set to use this money to expand into new regions and accelerate its growth by creating partnerships with real estate agencies.

Oren Peleg, the newly appointed chairman of Kitt

Kitt, an office management platform that allows tenants to visualise and design their property using virtual reality, has raised £2m in seed funding.

Andrew Barclay, estate agent YOPA co-founder, led the funding round and will join the company’s board.

The London-based company has appointed the former Fitness First CEO, Oren Peleg, as chairman.

Kitt is set to use this investment to grow its network of landlords across London and develop its technology.