Meet the European innovators in Colliers Proptech Accelerator

Colliers International has announced the startups for its accelerator programme in collaboration with Techstars. The accelerator hopes to support solutions across the real estate value chain such as commercial datasets for occupiers and investors; office services and tenant engagement; big data, analytics and artificial intelligence; space as a service; marketplaces and space utilisation; and Smart City and Internet of Things.

The finalist startups represent nine cities in seven countries, with three of the companies coming from Europe.

SPCE is the only UK participant in the class of 2018 line-up. The idea for SPCE came about in 2013, when CEO, Leon Ifayemi, was at university. By working in the Student Housing Department, he realised the rental market was broken. Both students and landlords were frequently facing similar and common problems but no-one was fixing them. In partnership with credit scoring agency Experian and the UK’s top universities, the SPCE platform works to provide students with a credit rating for renting campus-specific properties without the need for deposits or joint tenancy liability.

Basking, based in Germany’s tech hub, Berlin, is an ROI-driven building automation platform for the coworking market. Installers connect building systems to the cloud via secure gateways and, as a result, management knows exactly who’s been using which rooms and charges members accordingly. The platform also sends notifications about issues on the premises, and can be used to control building management systems via a simple app.

How Basking’s platform works

Founded in 2011 in Gothenburg, Raybased is an open wireless network for commercial real estate. The platform communicates across all existing electrical systems to monitor, control and optimise functions such as heating, ventilation, lighting and access. The system is compatible with other building automation systems on the market. Older, existing installations in a building can be coordinated and optimised via Raybased through an intelligent operating system where all functions interact.

The rest of the Colliers Proptech Accelerator Class of 2018 includes:

• A Retail Space (New York, US) – finds an ideal location for businesses through data
• Booqed (Hong Kong, China) – a digital marketplace for flexible space, helping to connect businesses needing places to work, meet or host an event, with landlords seeking to monetise under-utilised space
• Lane (Toronto, Canada) – an operating system for buildings, streamlining building operations on a cloud-based platform
• MapYourProperty (Toronto, Canada) – a Google Maps for Real Estate Land Development, simplifying the planning process to a 3-click solution
• Propstack (Mumbai, India) – a data and analytics company that helps predict real estate market trends and enables efficient transactions
• RefineRE (Dallas, US) – leverages real-time market data to provide portfolio intelligence for organisations looking to make smarter, better and faster decisions about buying, selling, leasing, expanding, or downsizing their property footprint
• Upsuite (Denver, US) – a coworking space finder

Over the next 13 weeks, the startups will work from the Techstars Accelerator space in Toronto to refine their business plans and gain traction in the market, while accelerating their fundraising strategies and developing demo day presentations. Through this process, the startups will work closely with mentors from Colliers and the broader real estate industry, successful startup founders and venture capitalists. At the end of the program, each company will present to investors and mentors at a demo day in December.

“Each startup in our Class of 2018 has been carefully selected for investment based on their approach to near-term, value-enhancing opportunities for our clients and professionals as well as longer-term opportunities that, with strong technology platforms, will help us push industry boundaries,” said Jay Hennick, Colliers chairman & CEO.

“At Colliers, our enterprising culture values mentorship and the benefits it can bring to a growing company. Our class will have access to more than 100 Colliers and industry mentors, as part of the Colliers Proptech Accelerator, giving them an exceptional opportunity to test, pilot and grow their companies.”