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The National Association of Realtors has announced which 12 real estate startups will brave the stage at the 1.5 million-member trade group’s technology conference at the end of the month.
The contestants offer tools for virtual agent coaching, real estate investing, floor plans, inspections, property co-ownership, secure document storage, rentals, home renovation and agent finances.
NAR’s fourth annual Innovation, Opportunity & Investment (iOi) Summit will take place Sept. 28 and 29 at the JW Marriott L.A. Live in Los Angeles.
The event is best known for its “Pitch Battle,” a contest hosted by NAR’s for-profit investment subsidiary Second Century Ventures, in which aspiring real estate tech startups vie for $15,000 in cash and the attention of venture capitalists and others, who could help them make a splash in the industry.
NAR bills the event as “the ultimate proptech startup throw-down.”
Bob Goldberg | NAR CEO
“In today’s real estate ecosystem, innovation is accelerating, opportunity is exploding, and investment is at a record high,” said NAR CEO and SCV President Bob Goldberg in a statement.
SCV will live-stream the Pitch Battle on Sept. 28 from 2:55 p.m. to 5:10 p.m. Pacific Time from NAR’s LinkedIn page. It will not be live-streamed on other social channels. Each contestant will have four minutes to make their pitch live and in person and then another four minutes to answer questions from the Pitch Battle judges.
Each contestant must make a compelling case about how their product or service will improve the real estate industry — whether residential, commercial or both, according to NAR.
“At the iOi Summit, real estate professionals, investors and innovators gather to cultivate and champion the most impactful ideas that will disrupt the status quo and advance the industry,” Goldberg said. “We are thrilled to have these companies showcase their innovations live on stage.”
The winner will be announced on Sept. 29 at 4:50 p.m. Pacific Time. That announcement will also be live-streamed.
The judges will be Ines Hegedus-Garcia, executive vice president of Avanti Way; Thomas Ma, founder and CEO of Real Messenger; Liz Sturrock, chief of MLS and innovation at Miami Realtors; Chris Gough, managing director at Houlihan Lokey; and Max Diez, partner and founder at 25v.
Here are the 12 contestants, along with NAR-provided descriptions:
- Agently: Agently is on a mission to become a gateway into a real estate career to help agents kickstart their careers by providing daily guidance and tools to real estate professionals.
- Arx: Arx automatically underwrites millions of properties in advance — allowing professionals to cut through the noise and focus on the properties that have the best potential.
- CubiCasa: With zero training required and a five-minute property scan from almost any phone, CubiCasa’s computer vision technology produces a reliable and accurate floor plan and property data.
- Fractional: Fractional, a social platform, allows anyone to easily co-invest in properties, share ideas and build a network.
- Inspectify: Inspectify takes the pain out of the inspection booking process by providing scheduling in minutes and direct communication using the latest technology.
- Pacaso: Pacaso makes second-home ownership more accessible by lowering ownership costs and reducing hassle through a fully-managed owner experience.
- Prisidio: Prisidio provides a safe and protected cloud-based vault that’s secured in one location, allowing users to share their valuable and important items with those they trust.
- RentBase: RentBase offers a holistic, single source of truth by providing agents with an interconnected bird’s-eye view of their landlords, listings and leads.
- Residently: Residently simplifies renting a home by building a world where renters can find their next homes months in advance of a move, secure it and set it up – all within minutes.
- Revive: With Revive, homeowners can strategically repair and renovate their homes before selling and significantly increase their net gains.
- Stake: Stake builds renters’ savings with no fees or debt accumulation and empowers today’s owners to create financially safe and secure rental communities. Renters can earn cash back and build savings through financial tips and tools.
- Symba: Symba makes financial well-being easy for real estate agents, with the only platform in the industry that combines customer-relationship management with embedded banking.
Furniture rental startup Feather defeated 11 other contestants in last year’s Pitch Battle.
On-demand photo-editing service BoxBrownie beat out 15 other contestants when NAR held its first Pitch Battle at its inaugural iOi Summit in San Francisco in 2018. And Curbio, which renovates homes for sellers and gets paid at closing, won against 13 other contestants at the second Pitch Battle in 2019 in Seattle.
According to NAR, the prize package is winner-takes-all and includes:
- $15,000
- A 10 x 10 booth at NAR’s annual conference in November, NAR NXT
- A live demonstration from the theater in the NAR booth at the 2022 NAR NXT
- An article feature about the Pitch Battle winner in RISMedia and Realtor Magazine
- A meeting with an SCV executive
- The opportunity to present the prize check during the presentation ceremony to the winner of the iOi Pitch Battle 2023
“In addition to the cash prize, the Pitch Battle winner receives national publicity as a company that will likely have a significant impact on the future of the real estate industry,” said David Conroy, NAR’s director of emerging technology, in a statement.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add the names of the contest judges, with a corrected description of Stake from NAR, and to clarify that the pitch battle will be live-streamed on NAR’s LinkedIn page and nowhere else.
