ReXT is Back! Mar2021 Round Up
Back after a 3 month hiatus - Here's what happened in the meanwhile!
First of all, thanks to everyone who emailed/pinged me asking why I had not written anything over the past 3 months! The fact that so many people missed getting this newsletter breathed more energy into me than I can ever describe :) But let me officially state -
I wanted to take a few weeks to pause and think deeply about what I wanted to achieve with this newsletter, and am now back with an update on the future.
Over the long term, I will try to make RealEstatexTechnology into a media company focussed on the future of real estate, proptech and everything at their intersection. We are talking blogposts, news, interviews, company profiles, podcasts, etc. - The whole 9 yards.
But to begin with, I am going to make sure that I send 1-3 emails a week to all readers with curated news from around this industry, along with my take on some of the important developments that everyone should be aware of.
There is so much information around real estate/proptech, and there is no single source for reliable information and actionable intelligence for people interested in this domain - I hope to make this newsletter as that source :)
If you know someone who would love to receive these emails into their inbox, do ask them to subscribe on the link below :)
Mar-2021: News Round Up
Mergers and Acquisitions:
Coliving firm Habyt acquired competitor Quarters:
In a tough year for coliving, some consolidation was expected. Post the acquisition, Habyt has a portfolio of 4,000 rooms under management across Europe after adding over 2,000 rooms from Quarters to it’s mix. Quarters had shut down their US operations last year, and filed for bankruptcy in Jan-2021.
Rise Buildings acquired by VTS for $100M
Rise Buildings provide multiple products that help landlords and property managers manage the property and elevate the tenant experience. With rapid vaccination in the US, many large companies are looking to go back into their offices and hence, this sort of technology is becoming relevant.
Funding/IPOs and SPACs:
A LOT of money was raised or invested in PropTech in Mar-2021
WeWork is going public (Finally!) via a SPAC deal with BowX:
After a failed effort to go public in 2019, WeWork looks set to succeed this time via a SPAC deal with BowX. The valuation of $9B is a steep drop from the $47B it raised financing at in 2019. With the pandemic fundamentally changing the commercial real estate landscape, is WeWork a ‘buy’ for you at $9B?
Compass raised $450M in their IPO:
Compass is a software company and a real estate brokerage packed into 1 (They refer to themselves as a 'Tech enabled brokerage'). They are already backed by Softbank and have raised $4B in capital so far. Many are questioning their valuation, but they have grown very quickly in the last 5 years. They successfully raised $450M in their IPO recently.
Side Inc raised $150M in funding from Coatue Ventures:
Side Inc is a white-label software provider for real estate agents and brokers. A simple analogy to understand Side Inc’s market positioning -
Compass: Amazon :: Side Inc: Shopify
Enabling brokers to adopt technology is a great opportunity although strife with challenges. It’s interesting this funding has come through just weeks after the Compass IPO.
OfferPad goes public via SPAC:
OfferPad is a real estate iBuyer. It's an interesting model mainly because iBuyers are changing how people buy and sell homes, and it is a HUGE market over all. OpenDoor went public via a SPAC in 2020, and Zillow Offers is growing quickly as well. Interesting space for sure.
Pacaso raised $75M from Greycroft Ventures:
The startup is helping catalyze 2nd home ownership (Primarily for vacation rental) and is started by Spencer Rascoff (Zillow’s Co-Founder and former CEO).
Some other news to read -
SmartRent raises an extra $31M from Lennar Group
Industry News and Updates:
Good profile of India's construction marketplace Infra.Market: Infra.Market became one of India's fastest Unicorns with a $100M Series C lead by Tiger Global recently. This article is a good profile of the company and the construction technology space within real estate
Google's Investment into Office Spaces and Data Centers: Not every company is going fully remote forever! Google has committed to spending $7B into offices and data centers over the next year. While this is much lesser than the $12B they invested in 2019, it is still a significant commitment given the uncertainty around 'back to office' strategy for most people
With online classes becoming the norm, and anxious parents hesitant to send their children to campuses, the student housing market took a hit. This article does a good job of quantifying the impact on the market size and rent ranges in the UK.
Douglas Elliman forays into PropTech
For the uninitiated, Douglas Elliman is one of the largest residential brokerages in the US (But they are purely an offline player without any technology presence). Through this move, they are hoping hoping to digitize their company's offering and understand the best technologies which are available to the market.
Drop a ‘hi’ or your feedback as a reply to this email if you can :) I’d love to hear your views on how I can make this newsletter better!