With no significant inventory hitting the market, and high inflation rates continuing throughout the country, May saw a good amount of property investment solution and management platforms raise funds and attempt to increase market share in a currently fragmented, overcrowded industry.
Another notable trend has been the increased adoption of hybrid-use office space solutions, in an attempt by commercial real estate (CRE) owners and operators to utilize unused space and businesses to enable remote work for its employees.
Examples of real estate investment activity include Stoa‘s recent $50 million equity funding round led by Zeev Ventures for its single-family rental (SFR) investment platform FlipOS. Sundae also ended the month with a new premium property investment program to provide investors a way to scale their businesses through its “as-is” property marketplace.
For office space, Upflex secured a $30 million investment from large hybrid workspace provider WeWork and notable names Newmark and Cushman & Wakefield. The news is notable, considering WeWork and Newmark both are in the process of launching their own hybrid workspace products. Flexspace also announced raising $6 million for its on-demand workspace service.
That’s just the beginning of an eventful month now wrapped up. Below I’ve listed the biggest stories, news and activity around the proptech industry in May.
Enjoy this month’s PropTech Retrospect.
Property Management/Smart Home
- Housfy raises $31M Series B to build its cohesive resident service ecosystem (May 11)
- Eviivo launches mobile rental property management app (May 13)
- Sage unveils property management cloud solution (May 23)
- Fyxt raises $4M Series A (May 24)
Real Estate/Property Investment
- Stoa raises $50M for single-family investment platform FlipOS: “Through its FlipOS platform, Stoa operates a business model focused on professional investor partnerships, and says it leverages its technology to enable the purchase, renovation and sale of single-family homes at four times the speed of existing models.” (May 16)
- oHouse raises $182M Series D for home improvement marketplace (May 9)
- Sundae launches premium property investment membership program: “It says this new launch represents investor demand for a fully integrated platform that makes it easier to source and buy properties, ‘similar to what Amazon does for retail.'” (May 24)
- Renters Warehouse parent Appreciate announces SPAC plans (May 17)
- Ownwell raises $5.75M seed for property tax services: “The company states that homeowners pay billions of dollars in extra taxes due to inequities in assessing property values, and says by finding and addressing these inefficiencies, they make the costs of property ownership more equitable.” (May 2)
- Backflip raises $8M seed for local real estate investment financing (May 6)
- CAPE Analytics launches AI real estate intelligence platform, “AIRE” (May 10)
- Proptech Parcl offers real estate investing without liquidity (May 20)
Rentals/Letting
- Belong raises $80M debt and equity to expand rental management platform (May 20)
- Hostfully raises $4M seed for STR platform (May 27)
- Ukio raises $2.7M in debt funding for flexible living solution (May 27)
- Managed App raises $5.3M for automated rental payment system (May 31)
Agents/Brokerages
- Courted.io raises $6M seed round for agent network, joins NAR’s REACH (May 3)
- Housing Rights Initiative sues 120 firms in fair housing suit (May 27)
- Prop-tech DropOffer wants to open up off-market inventory (May 3)
Lending/Mortgage
- Lev raises $170M, including Series B led by First American new VC brand: “The company says that its technology provides loan seekers with instant access to customized financing from leading financial institutions, and enables CRE loans to close three times faster than existing methods (with traditional standards taking months).” (May 5)
- GPARENCY launches Match to Lender solution (May 12)
- Steady secures $500M for Rent Advance product (May 26)
- Morty launches new loan types, expands state coverage (May 11)
- First American mortgage arm announces ICE integration (May 4)
- MAXEX extends loan-trading reach with DSCR program (May 4)
Home equity
- Fractional home-equity lender Point raises $115 million: “The capital will be used to accelerate Point’s growth in the $25 trillion home-equity market. … The general premise, however, is that Point provides the homeowner with cash upfront in exchange for a contract providing the company with a slice of the homeowner’s equity. That share is typically around 10 percent or so. “(May 3)
Commercial (CRE)
- Hybrid workspace startup Upflex raises $30M Series A led by WeWork (May 25)
- Flexspace announces $6M seed round to extend on-demand workspace product (May 19)
ESG/Sustainability
Construction
- Material Bank raises $175M Series D from Brookfield (May 6)
- Built announces Sage 300 accounting and ERP integration (May 9)
- Pre-construction closing system Senara completes pre-seed round (May 4)
Insurance/Insurtech
- Honeycomb expands multi-family insurance product to Texas (May 4)
- Arturo partners with ICEYE to provide property insurers real-time flood intelligence (May 25)
VC Funds News
- Fairstead launches $100M investment vehicle aimed at affordable housing, sustainable development (May 5)
- Nuveen launches new investing sector, seeks to hold over $15B in impact real estate assets by 2026 (May 10)
- GreenPoint announces close of $134 million inaugural real estate tech fund (May 18)
- 1Sharpe Ventures closes $90M early-stage proptech fund (May 26)
FinLedger Q&As
- Roofstock CEO Gary Beasley discusses the SFR market, future plans and recent funding (May 20)
- Splitero CEO Michael Gifford discusses alternative home equity and educating homeowners (May 17)
- Veev new CFO Gordon Heneweer discusses next steps, plans for alternative homebuilding firm (May 16)
- Local Logic Head of Insights Jason Stanley talks ESG proposal, real estate outcomes (May 13)
- Ownly CEO Jason Hardy discusses digitizing home builder sales and growing an e-commerce ecosystem (May 23)
Tech Nest: The PropTech Podcast with Nate Smoyer
- Using AI to Detect Tenant Fraud with Daniel Berlind, CEO of Snappt (May 3)
- Fully Digital Fund Transfers in Real Estate with Earnnest CRO, Russell Smith (May 10)
- Vacation Rental & Hospitality Market Tech with Vince Breslin, CEO of Uplisting, and Emmanuel Lavoie, CEO of Jetstre (May 19)
- Mapping Real Estate Data with Josh Fraser, CEO of Estated (May 24)
- Security Deposits as a Service with Chanin Ballance, CEO of Roost (May 27)
Partner content
- The promise of AI in real estate: what’s the verdict? (May 9, Romi Mahajan)
- How smart home technology can benefit renters and property managers (May 3)
- How adding title and closing can benefit your business model and the borrower experience (May 2)
- Driving consumer lending efficiency in an Omni-channel environment
- FinLedger Demo Day: Rently (May 25)
- FinLedger Demo Day: CoreLogic (May 25)