The past year in the American PropTech Industry is best characterized by a long-predicted period of market consolidation, while economic pressures, including a raising of interest rates and concerns over recessionary pressures, led to a substantial decline in the number of investors when compared to the previous fiscal year. However, 2022-2023 was still a packed fiscal cycle in terms of the number of deals made. The American West Coast is commonly thought of as the origins of the PropTech industry, although the oldest and very highly valued market of New York was not far behind. Some 236 deals by 196 companies were completed in California in the past fiscal year, making up 26.19% of the market and there were 140 deals by 125 companies in New York, representing 15.54% of the market. Texas (80 deals) and Florida (50 deals), although only about half as active, also represent significant areas of growth and deal making for the PropTech Industry in the US. Furthermore, states like Massachusetts (30 deals) and Illinois (28 deals) represent areas where growth and consolidation of PropTech companies shows that these companies are tapping traditionally highly valued real estate markets. States like Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, and North Carolina do not represent major active markets for deals and consolidation currently. Arizona, after all, had just 15 deals last year. That said, if we look at the capital invested in these deals, we might see some surprising upsets from yearon-year trends.
When we control the count of deals for the shear amount of capital included in the agreement, California slides quickly from the top state in the past fiscal cycle. Indeed, Arizona reaches the top of the list, with $8.61 Billion USD or 26.92% of the market share, across the just 15 aforementioned deals. Most of this capital is accounted for through the Healthcare Realty Trust acquisition of Healthcare Trust of America, which was completed in July of 2022. The acquisition brought together two of the largest owners of medical office buildings in the of United States. New York then follows Arizona, with 20.84% of the market and a total of $6.66 Billion USD. Of course, the most significant deal in New York State is Better’s recently announced reverse merger to acquire Aurora Acquisition for $5 Billion USD, which will put the company’s post-money valuation at $7.7 Billion USD. Next, Delaware makes up 15.28% of the market with $4.89 Billion USD, predominantly accounted for by two General Debt deals associated with Corporate Services Company (CSC). CSC received a senior secured term loan B, a line of credit, and a secured term loan A from major corporate banks, totalling $3.48 Billion USD, intended to fund future acquisitions. We are already seeing these funds have an impact on the future of PropTech, as CSC completed a November 2022 acquisition of Dutch-rival Intertrust Group for $2 Billion USD. Notably, among Intertrust Group’s expertise is a specialization in Real Estate Accounting. Further, since CSC’s specialties include fiduciary and governance support, as well as legal compliance and transaction consulting, it is unquestionable that they will continue to be a player in the PropTech space.
When we examine the amount of capital invested in deals in the United States per region and by quarter, it becomes clear that the West Coast, despite being the primary region of technological innovation in the United States, no longer accounts for the most capital involved in deals. Indeed, but for the aforementioned Healthcare Trust of America deal, which is located in the Southwest region, much of the deals are concentrated in the MidAtlantic states of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The two major deals in the past cycle in the West were accounted for by Deliverr and Homelight.
Both San Francisco-based, Deliverr was acquired by Shopify for $2.1 Billion, while Homelight raised $478 million through acombination of debt and Series D venture funding in June of 2022, before the also received a $500,000 growth capital loan and a $500,000 unfunded commitment from TriplePoint Venture Growth in December of 2022, totaling $1 million in debt financing in their second major deal of the year.
In the Midwest, the most significant deals are accounted for by Lineage Logistics Holdings, which is a provider of warehousing and temperature-controlled logistics facilities designed to lessen environmental impact and minimize supply chain waste. In 2021, Lineage Logistics had a total of eight (8) active or pending patents for apparatus or arrangements taking/ viewing photographs (1), system regulation and control (1), image data processing/generation (1), refrigerators (1), transportation/storage devices (1), one other patent, and an impressive three patents for information and communication technology specially adapted for administrative commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes. They then leveraged these technological advancements to secure $500 million in a Revolving Credit Line and a $700 million term loan to support future acquisitions in June of 2022. This capital was then followed by a $700 million PE Growth/Expansion deal backed by Private Equity in December 2022 to support the completion of a global pipeline of more than 20 in-flight greenfield and expansion projects. Although there were some significant deals in Texas, Florida, and New Hampshire this past year, as we can see, the Northeast, MidSouth, and South in the United States are still a bit less developed in the PropTech space. Gradually, however, as more companies are expected to emerge in Florida and Texas, we may see a reallocation of capital to these states as well.
Figure 23: Top 500 Companies by Deal & Primary Industry Vertical
When we break down the capital invested by PropTech category and date over the course of the past fiscal year, we can observe some interesting trends. First and foremost, it is clear that those deals involved in Financial Services are still the most significant individual deals in the year, being represented by the aforementioned Healthcare Trust of America and Better deals. The next most significant deals are all in the B2B category of companies. These include the Corporation Services Company, Deliverr, and Lineage Logistics Holdings deals. They also include Lessen, an operator of a property services platform that aids the management of real estate assets, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Lessen raised $500 million in venture funding via a combination of debt and equity in January of 2023 to support the acquisition of SMS Assist, which was completed in the same month for $950 million.
As SMS Assist has been a provider of business services intended to deliver unprecedented transparency and control within the facilities maintenance industry, based out of Chicago, Illinois, the deal also represents the potential readjustment the multi-polar nature of the American markets, with markets in the “Smile States” (Arizona through Texas and Florida) becoming more significant. Two examples of “Smile State” companies, both of which are B2C category companies, are Setpoint (based in Austin, Texas) which received both Seed Round and Early Stage VC financing this past year, and Flow (based in Miami, Florida), which received Early Stage VC Financing. That said, the greatest number of deals is still, by far, in the Information Technology category, which make up a total of 47.60% of all deals in the past fiscal year, but just 14.95% of the capital invested. This dynamic is likely because small startups still dominate the investing space of the Information Technology sector. Thus, deals are smaller, but dispersed much more evenly throughout the year.
In recent news in the PropTech industry, there were many concerns as Quarter 1 of the 2023 calendar year represented the worst financial quarter out of the past twenty, with just $17.28 Billion USD, compared to an all time peak of $162.02 Billion in Quarter 4 of the 2020 calendar year. However, when the Quarter 2 2023 reports came in, the numbers were surprising. Quarter 2 of the 2023 calendar year ended with $88.23 Billion USD raised, which was just under the Quarter 2 totals for 2022 and 2021, being $92.69 Billion USD and $110.46 Billion USD respectively, but greater than the total of Quarter 2 2019 ($30.16 Billion) and Quarter 2 2020 ($54.43 Billion) combined. However, by the more recent quarters, smaller deals Information Technology make up for much of the count, which represents a distinct dynamic from earlier quarters. That said, these “smaller” deals can remain quite significant, such as SafeAI’s recent raising of $68 million in Series B venture funding as of May 29, 2023. Since SafeAI, based in Santa Clara, CA is focusing on developing autonomous heavy equipment technology to supplement the mining and construction industries, their business model operates at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous cars, Big Data, Construction Technology and Mobility Technology, bringing all these developments together under a single company that is transforming the world by allowing operators to retrofit heavy vehicles and site operations with autonomous technology, enabling safer and more productive websites. Simultaneously, they are also lessening the environmental impact of the AItransition, as allowing retrofitting makes it possible for owners perators of heavy machinery to adopt and transform their present machines, rather than dispose of them.
Among the top American companies active in the past year, we see some familiar players rise to the top when we rank them by total finances raised. Lineage Logistics is by far the top company, with more than $10.2 Billion USD raised. Then Corporation Services Company comes in second with $4.85 Billion, quickly followed by MRI Software, a provider of real estate and investment management software to owners, investors, and operators, based out of Solon, outside of Cleveland, Ohio came in third, with just over $4 Billion USD raised to date. While their work includes automation in the areas of financial operations, they also complete strategic planning projects, operate in commercial management, and work in compliance management for affordable housing, public housing, voucher management, waitlist management, and asset management. Additionally, in June 2023, MRI Software Launched a commercial tenant porthole, which allows for easy access to billing, payments, and online service requests. In the second tier of companies, we have Reef Technologies, Figure Financial Software, Insurity, and Better, all of which raised between $1 and $2 Billion USD. In a third tier, we find OfferPad, Homelight, Knock, Ribbon, Setpoint, Plum, Kiavi, and Homeward, having raised between $500 million and $1 Billion USD all time. Finally, a fourth tier rounds out the top twenty companies by all-time fundraising totals, with Roofstock, Deliverr, EasyKnock, TS, and Pacaso all having raised between $400 and $500 Million USD. A significant portion of these companies are in our Financial Services Category. Notably, MRI Software, Better, Figure, Insurity, Plum, Kiavi, and Easy knock are all operating at the intersection between PropTech and FinTech.
When we adjust our parameters to highlight the most significant companies in the United States by last financing size, we see that the top five deals are those including Better, Lineage Logistics Holdings, Corporation Services Company, SMS Assist and Lessen. Each of these has achieved significant financing, landing between $500 Million USD and just over $5 Billion USD in the past fiscal year. The rest of the top ten are made up of Flow (Real Estate Services), B2W Software, Hill International, Landing, and Bilt Rewards. Flow, which received both Seed Round and Early Stage VC financing this past year, is a provider of rental-housing experiences and services to outside developers, with the aim of helping customers to decrease their living costs. For instance, they aim to provide equity and concierge services for renters, while providing management services for third party landlords. The company is one of the latest projects of famous founder, Adam Neumann, of WeWork fame, and raised $350 million in venture funding from Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz in August of 2022. Flow aims to serve Nashville, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale in Florida, thus bringing PropTech to several markets which had not been served directly by the tech boom in previous years. The company, thus, is a direct consumer-facing company that will serve an underserved market of renters in southeastern American cities.
While Flow emphasizes consumer interactions, two of the remaining top ten PropTech companies in the US from 2022-2023 by last financing size service businesses more directly. B2W Software, based in the historical manufacturing hub of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is a developer of unified heavy construction software for the building industry, while Hill International (acquired by Global Infrastructure Solutions in December 2022), provides projection management and consulting services for building, transportation, environmental, energy and industrial markets. The remaining two companies of the top ten PropTech companies by last financing in the United States provide solutions to problems in the existing rental market. Bilt Rewards is a Financial Software company that enables renters to earn rewards points by paying rent. The rewards can then be used on airline travel, at partnered hotels, toward future downpayments for purchased property, and more, providing one possible solution to move toward home ownership. Finally, Landing operates an online marketplace for furnished apartments. Currently helping consumers find short and long-term furnished stays in Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Denver, and Austin, Landing has emphasized the emerging markets of the “Smile States,” although they have also tapped into Chicago, one of the traditionally strong real estate markets of the Midwest. We find a similarly robust mix of B2C, B2B, Information Technology d Financial Services companies in Europe in this years’ barometer as well.
The past decade of PropTech in Europe has seen a few powerhouse countries rise to the top of the list: England, France, and Germany. These three markets are among the top five PropTech markets almost every year. In 2020, a shakeup and massive amount of capital raised in Belgium allowed the Belgian market to break into the top five. Sweden, much like Spain, has had occasional moments in the sun among the top five. However, after an initial burst in 2014, the Spanish market has been growing steadling. Similarly, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands are often near the top of the list. However, the dispersal of capital is quite uneven. An expanded list of the top 500 deals, aggregated by European country, from the past fiscal year reveals some interesting trends about the European market. While more than $2 Billion USD was invested in PropTech in England in the 2022-2023 fiscal cycle, the numbers for France and Italy, while still significant, were less than half that of England, coming in at $482.29 Million USD and $451.98 Million USD respectively. The third tier, including Spain and Sweden, raised between $200 and $300 Million USD. The remainder of the top ten, including Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, all raised between $50 Million and $200 Million USD.
While the top ten countries in Europe aggregated by investment in PropTech companies from 2022-2023 contains few surprises at the top of the list, in that the English market is the most substantial, and other substantial markets for investments tend to be located in Western Europe, when we expand the list to the top twenty countries, a few surprises emerge. One might expect Scandinavian markets, like Finland and Norway, to be not far behind Sweden. Similarly, one might expect small, but relatively wealthy, Western European markets like Ireland, Scotland, and Luxembourg. The Czech Republic might enter one’s might, as a market in close proximity to those of Austria and Switzerland, as well as of a comparable size. However, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, and Estonia are not likely to be high on the list of mentions for promising PropTech markets. Yet, in each case, between $1 Million USD and $10 Million USD were raised in the past year in these countries. In Bulgaria, Telelink Infra Services provides infrastructure services, while Maistor Plus provides a platform for home renovation and interior design services and FlatAway provides professional serviced apartments for long-term stays. Tallinn, Estonia is home to several Information Technology companies, including EstateGuru, Redin, HotelBuddy, and AuFort. While these markets appear small currently, they could represent the greatest opportunities for new growth for the PropTech industry in terms of applications of existing technological solutions to aging real estate markets.
PropTech in France is a more significant market than Spain, with 102 companies participating in 109 deals with thanks to 191 investors, and $5.48 Billion USD in investments, when we count every company with an office in France. Even when we limit the search to those headquartered in France, we have 87 companies who have completed 93 deals with thanks to 171 investors, and $482.29 Million USD. To explain the distinction in these measures: in the first measure, we would include major companies like the Corporation Services Company (USA), Infogrid (UK), Badi (Spain), and Housing Anywhere (the Netherlands) among the top ten fundraisers in France, as they have offices there. However, if we exclude companies that have their headquarters abroad, we have top French B2C companies like Colonies, Proiprioo and Masteos, Financial Services companies like Clubfunding Group, and the Information Technology company Matera as the top five fundraisers as of the past fiscal cycle.
Figure 28 shows the top deals in France by type and date for the past fiscal cycle. More than one quarter of the capital invested in the deals (28.94%) was located in Growth/Expansion, while just under one quarter (23.69%) was allocated to Early Stage VC and around one-fifth (20.71%) was allocated to Later Stage VC deals. Seed funding deals made up under ten percent (9.06%) of the capital invested, with a small remainder being Angel (1.44%), Pre/Accelerator/Incubator (.38%) and Grants (.02%). LBOs and Buyouts, which we have been watching for as a sign of market consolidation, reached 15.76% of the capital invested in deals in France in the previous cycle. Among the most significant deals were Clubfunding Groups’ PE Growth/ Expansion $134.07 Million USD deal including injections of development capital from Peninsula Capital, EMZ Partners, Florac, and Bpifrance in September 2022. The explicit aim of this deal was for the company to establish itself throughout Europe.
Next, Masteos – a developer of a real estate management platform completed two important deals, including an injection of Equity Crowdfunding of $1.78 Million USD in Jan 2023, which was then presumably quickly put to use as the company secure a larger Early Stage VC (Series A) venture funding in a $57.34 Million USD deal led by EDF Pulse Venture in March 2023. The next most significant deal was AgoraStore’s Buyout/LBO, as the company was acquired by 21 Invest and Bpifrance in a $50 million deal in November 2022. Bpifrance was also a participant in another significant Buyout/LBO deal, this time for Citron, a developer of digital energy efficiency and property management platform designed to help digitize energy and other technical management of buildings. The $21.9 Million USD investment in Citron aims to help the company scale up, recruiting some 200 individuals, which would make the company more than three times its present size, with the investment additionally backed by Entrepreneur Invest and Eiffel Investment Group. Finally, the fifth top deal completed by a company headquartered in France in the past cycle was completed by Garantme, a provider of insurance brokerage services that aims to provide renters access to apartment rentals without needing access to a guarantor, while also providing landlords with security of income. Garantme received a total of $16.46 Million USD in Later Stage VC funding from a combination of Axeleo, Bonsai Venture Capital, 115K, and NewAlpha Asset Management.
During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, there were 58 PropTech companies with offices in Spain, who participated in 61 deals, with thanks to 105 investors and $1.18 Billion USD in investments. However, if we narrow the list to simply include those companies headquartered in Spain, we have 41 companies that participated in 42 deals, with thanks to 59 investors just $242.52 Million USD in investments for 2022-2023, meaning that over 25% of the total number of PropTech companies in Spain (167) participated in deals in the past year. What this suggests is that we are still in a relatively early stage of development for the PropTech industry in Spain. Foreign international powerhouses, like Casavo (of Italy) have come to realize the importance of having an office in Spain.
Figure 29: Top Deals in Spain by Deal Type (2022-2023)
Figure 29 shows the top deals in Spain in the past fiscal year broken down by deal type. As we can see, the most significant deals tend to be forms of VC funding Seed Rounds. However, the largest and most significant deal in the past year was Knowmad Mood’s December 2022 IPO. As an operator of consulting and IT Services, Knowmad Mood’s software company is intended to help clients transform their services for the digital era. The company helps to bridge one of the most important gaps to cross in terms of the development of the Spanish real estate market. Thus, there is no particular reason to believe the 293.06 Million Euro historical peak of 2020 is the maximum possible investment for this ever-growing and vital sector. As pressure continues to drive innovation, PropTech will likely play an even greater role in responding to the needs of real estate investors. In addition to Idealista and Clickalia – the two giants of the Spanish PropTech industry of previous cycles – another innovator to watch is Tiko.
Tiko also works on the iBuy model, like Clickalia, while the medium to long-term furnished rental market is being transformed by Spotahome, Vivla, and Badi. However, each of these latter companies has their distinct contributions. Vivla focuses on providing a fractional ownership of holiday rentals, especially villas, while Badi focuses on a range of long-term furnished apartments in Spain’s most popular cities (Madrid, Valencia, Granada, Barcelona, and more). Spotahome, by contrast, is more international, highlighting the potential future trend of Spanish investors profiting internationally through investments in London, Milan, Berlin, Lisbon, and Madrid. Finally, two newcomers, 011hr and Ukio were among the top fundraisers in the Spanish market this past year. 011hr is a provider of design and build services that aim to improve access to affordable, healthy, and sustainable housing. The company emphasizes all elements of construction, from architectural design and engineering, to manufacturing and digital support. The company’s last deal was for $26.48 Million USD in Series A funding in June 2022. The company is highly rated in terms of its success probability and represents a promising opportunity for a future Merger and Acquisition deal. Similarly, Ukio, another Spanish company founded in 2020 is also rated as having a high probability of success through a future Mergers and Acquisitions deal. The company joins others as an operator of a platform offering well-furnished monthly rentals to diminish the hassle of moving.
Despite being a larger and more significant European economy, the PropTech industry in Germany is slightly less developed when compared to its neighbor to the West, France. There were 81 companies that completed 84 deals thanks to 174 investors, having raised $5.77 Billion USD over the 2022-2023 fiscal year. However, if we limit the terms to companies that have a headquarters in Germany, rather than those that have an office, we have 59 PropTech companies, which completed 59 deals thanks to 115 investors, having raised $166.30 Million USD in capital. Thus, it is arguable whether or not the German market is more significant than the Spanish market, in that there are more foreign companies investing larger amounts of foreign capital in Germany. However, local capital investments for PropTech companies are more significant in Spain. This may be an indicator of heretofore untapped potentials in Germany, given the size and complexity of the German real estate market.
Figure 30: Top Deals in Germany (2022-2023)
Figure 30 shows the top deals in Germany during the past fiscal cycle by deal type. The most significant amount of capital (42.35%) was invested through Early Stage VC deals, with Later Stage VC deals making up just a bit more than a tenth of the capital invested (12.96%). However, Seed funding, which made up 29.73% of the deals in Germany in the past year, was much more significant than Seed funding in Spain. While there were no significant LBO/Buyout deals of consequence among German companies in the past cycle, Mergers and Acquisitions made up 13.12% of capital invested, with Growth/Expansion (1.16%), Angel (.64%) and Pre/Accelerator/Incubator (.4%) making up the remainder. The major distinction to notice about the German market is the degree to which Seed funding and Early Stage VC funding are making up very significant portions of the capital invested. This suggests that the investors in German markets are already investing the next cycle of market diversification, during a time when market forces are emphasizing consolidation. In other words, these investors are a few steps ahead of the rest of the market.
Among the top fundraising companies in German markets, we find Limehome, a developer of an apartment rental platform designed to offer affordable travel stays, founded in 2018, which just completed a $48.63 Million USD venture round in November of 2022. Next, Myne, a developer of a digital co-ownership platform intended to help purchase and manage holiday homes internationally received $25.10 Million USD in July of 2022. In third, we have Quantrefy, which has designed an all-in-one ESG platform for real estate companies to calculate ESG scores in real-time, a company that was acquired by Westbridge Advisory for $21.81 Million USD in October in a deal that enabled Westbridge Advisory to strengthen its ESG consultancy offerings. Apaleo, a developer of a cloud-based hotel management platform designed to manage multiple properties in the hospitality sector, received a recent Early-Stage VC (Series A) injection of funding from Rockaway Capital and Serpentine Ventures in March of 2023, totalling $9.93 Million USD. Finally, Kewazo, which is a manufacturer of robotic elevators providing on-site construction logistics through combining robotics and data analytics completed a Later Stage VC (Series A) $10.27 Million USD deal in January of 2023. However, it is of note that – much like the Spanish market – the German market does not place strong emphasis on Financial Services. Instead B2C (44.45%) and Information Technology (39.68%) make up the largest two shares of capital invested with B2B companies making up the remainder (15.87%). What this suggests is that Financial Services companies based in other countries may be able to expand into the German market relatively easily, given the lack of competition.
PropTech in Asia has been concentrated in comparatively fewer companies per population, when compared to the United States or Europe. In the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year, there were some 349 companies that secured 393 deals, thanks to 737 investors and $18.06 Billion USD in investments, if we keep the list of companies expanded to all PropTech companies with offices in Asia. However, if we narrow the list to just those companies with an HQ office in Asia, we see a more focused list of 294 companies, which nonetheless completed a surprising 328 deals, thanks to 604 investors and $6.89 Billion USD in investments. This evidence suggests that a substantial amount of PropTech capital in Asia and companies operating in Asia, especially in East and Southeast Asia, are in fact American companies, such as Better, which operates an office in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
Although there are certainly increasing numbers of companies realizing it is beneficial to tap into Asian markets, it is also the case that PropTech has grown significantly in the region in the past year and more. Top companies, like KE Holdings and China Vanke Company have raised more than $5 Billion USD to date, and more than $1 Billion USD in the past year alone. China Vanke is a major real estate developer in China, with sales putting them at the top of their peer group consistently in the past half decade. Most recently they announced a staggering $2.25 Billion USD in Pipe Funding, which will be used, in turn, for 11 property projects, as well as to boost capital reserves for future projects. While China Vanke is more invested in building, KE holdings is more invested in developing a new online platform for transactions, Beike. Through Beike, they facilitate a wide range of transactions, including new home sales, home rentals, and even home renovations, as well as real estate financial solutions and other services. Just at the start of the fiscal year, in June 2022, when an undisclosed buyer bought a stake in the company as part of a $1.36 Billion USD deal.
Figure 31: Total Raised by Company and Category in Asia
Figure 31 shows the total amount of funds raised by PropTech companies in Asia. Unlike the US, the Information Technology sector is very small in comparison to the giant B2B and B2C sectors. In fact, B2B companies make up the greatest share of the total raised, or 65.23% of the market share. Meanwhile, B2C companies make up 28.55% of the market share. Also significantly, in part because of the dependence on raw materials from Asia, by companies in North America and Europe, it is not terribly surprising to see that there very small portion of the PropTech market that is also directly linked to the Materials and Resources market. Financial services, similarly, makes up a small portion of the PropTech market. This is not to say that the Information Technology or Financial services field in Asian markets are not producing key players. For instance, the top Information Technology company deal in the past fiscal cycle was completed by Andpad, of Japan, a developer of a construction management mobile application, which is designed to update drawings, process ts, photograph site information as inputs, and more, in real-time, to greatly aid the work of on-site supervisors. Andpad just raised a significant $81.57 Million USD in Series D funding to be used for recruitment and training of staff, engineers in particular, as well as to build a global development system, expanding overseas to acquire customers, products, and human resources. Needless to say, Andpad, along with the aforementioned other major players in Asia, will remain companies to watch in the coming cycle.
