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The PropTech Angel Investor Network’s first pitchfest offered a compelling peek at emerging proptech solutions which are aiming to grow in the Australian market.
Held at the Broadbeach Surf Life Saving Club on Monday, 27 May, the event saw the leaders at eight emerging tech firms compete for a $10,000 equity-free prize to turbocharge their growth and presence in the marketplace.
And though it was the first, PropTech Angel Investor Network founder and facilitator Sam Almaliki promised that there would be more opportunities for proptech entrepreneurs to show off their ideas and vie for prizes in the near future.
“There’s a real appetite to see innovation in the proptech ecosystem, and we always want to make sure we’re providing our investors and potential industry players the best possible opportunities,” Almaliki said, promising that the network would be announcing more events and opportunities soon.
This first session was partnered by REACH Australia and New Zealand, with a focus on supporting property- and technology-focused businesses seeking to raise under $4 million in funding and with a valuation of less than $20 million.
This saw firms and founders pitching platforms that aimed to address issues like the accessibility of investing in conservation land, the complex process of handing over documentation from developer to owner, and the trust deficit between agents and the public.
The firm that came out on top, winning both the cash prize and people’s choice award, was ListAssist, presented by co-founder and CEO Chris McGoldrick.
With two main offerings and already active in the US market, ListAssist sees itself as equipping agents with autonomy in an age when they seem to be growing increasingly more beholden to listings platforms.
“Since we launched, agents have told us over and over again about their frustrations around the portals and the commissions they charge,” McGoldrick said, particularly citing the pricing in the US market.
“The portals have built empires, and we think it’s time somebody armed the rebels,” he said.
That led the firm to develop both an AI-driven listing writing tool, as well as an innovative search function that can be integrated directly onto agencies’ websites.
“We believe consumers should be able to search the way they search for everything by describing what it is that they want,” McGoldrick explained. ListAssist allows consumers to describe their ideal home in a search field and watch what comes up.
A heavyweight team of judges – which comprised Tom Ellis from REACH Australia and New Zealand, Antonia Mercorella from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland, Sadhana Smiles from Real Estate Industry Partners, and Kylie Davis from the Proptech Association – tallied up their scores to deliver ListAssist the win, but they each expressed a great deal of interest in the other seven candidates, asking considered questions and offering congratulations to the innovative leaders for launching original ideas.
The other competing proptechs included:
- SquareBySquare: Tokenising rainforest investment to make it easier to support conservation efforts.
- Hubble: A platform that offers product analysis to predict a building’s energy star rating.
- Bike Party: Introducing cyclists to other cyclists to support co-commuting.
- Inndox: Streamlining the management of handovers, maintenance and servicing warranties.
- CAPTR: Providing instant, code-free video forms.
- Market Buy: An online offer management platform designed to assist in agent-consumer communication.
- YepAI: Specialising in AI avatars with a business-oriented generative AI engine.
Each one formed passionate arguments for how their product could contribute to a streamlined, efficient and more enjoyable experience for a range of stakeholders in the property sphere – no mean feat in just the allotted seven minutes.
As Almaliki noted, it’s not easy to try to convince a room of strangers to fund your project, and he commended each speaker for the effort they put into their presentations.
“It’s never easy getting out in front of an audience and putting yourself, your idea, your vision forward. I just want to acknowledge and thank all of the founders for their courage and conviction tonight,” he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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