Insights Archive
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It’s no surprise the traditional paradigm of working from the office every day of the week is gone. Fortunately, in 2020, we have tools such as Zoom, Slack, and DocuSign, for example, that allow us to communicate with each other and maintain acceptable productivity levels.
Nine Four Ventures is excited to announce its follow-on investment in SmartRent’s $60M Series C round led by Spark Capital and with participation of Bain Capital Ventures, RET Ventures, Fifth Wall, Energy Impact Partners, and the Amazon Alexa Fund.
As financial impacts of COVID-19 continue to work their way through the global economy, we’re beginning to see separations in how different real estate incumbents are thinking about, and adopting, technology.
In this post I build upon my previous blog and discuss how the insurance industry can benefit from photogrammetry, computer vision technology
Construction plays a critical role in the US economy. The industry employs millions of workers and involves trillions of dollars every year.
In this post, we review a few of the many ways, PropTech, specifically, can help industry stakeholders optimize operations.
In the real estate world, anything that would require a person to be on-premise or require physical documents presents an opportunity for substitution.
Photogrammetry is the science of making measurements from photographs. The inputs are typically 2D photos and the output is typically a 3D map, drawing or model of a real-world object or environment
In this post, we’ll discuss some of the businesses that have been positively impacted so far, and some that we believe are slated to see new growth opportunities as the world turns on its head.
In this post, we’ll discuss some of the businesses that have been positively impacted so far, and some that we believe are slated to see new growth opportunities as the world turns on its head.
The impact of a global pandemic is comprehensive in scale, and despite a government stimulus package, it looks like there is a long road ahead of us.
SaaS and payments and even lending represent other combinations contributing to the creation of deep activity systems leading to bigger addressable markets, expedited growth and greater differentiation.
Real Estate is especially known to be a relationship-driven business
Venture-backed PropTech companies are driving commercial real estate into the digital age with strategies to build so many different products (hardware and software), services, and platforms...
Institutional construction job sites are incredibly complex projects and have myriad different stakeholders including, but not limited to, architects, designers, general contractors, subcontractors, developers, lenders, inspectors, etc.
Companies specifically targeted to advance and contribute to how humans live within the built world, can have a tremendous impact on a path to a healthy, fulfilled life.
Coming into the new decade, one question that is top of mind for many is – what are we going to do about climate change?
...the PropTech space overall continues its evolution. According to CREtech, 2019 saw ~$30B+ invested in the PropTech space globally, keeping the annual trend of continuous record-breaking years of funding alive.
Managing invoices, purchase orders and delinquencies across legacy payment channels including ACH, wire, check, etc. is complex and a painful process. But it doesn’t stop there!
We live in a time where the product and software landscape is overwhelmingly saturated. For consumers, over-stimulation is very real - sorting through a sea of brands to find the ones that resonate, keep their promise, and continuously surprise and delight is almost a task in itself.
Reflecting on that experience, I noticed that there were things we did as a team that can now be augmented by technology. What was previously winning awards is now likely “table stakes” made possible by some of the technology and software solutions that are out there.
As 2019 comes to a close, it’s about that time for a slew of end-of-the-year summaries and trend reports. I quite enjoy them! So much so that I thought I’d write our own Nine Four Ventures version for the PropTech space.
The combination of SaaS and marketplace network effects creates complex activity systems expediting growth, strengthening competitive advantages and expanding addressable markets over time.
Branch, a digitally native office furniture solution and new Nine Four portfolio company, has entered the market to simplify the process, offering direct-to-business furniture with the guidance, flexibility, and the quality that growing companies require, all at an extremely affordable price.
...we do envision a world where startups build an agile software backbone that does have a differentiated cost structure and user experience that may unseat incumbent, traditional property managers themselves (the current customers of Yardi and RealPage).
Property management is not only a major pain point felt by millions of landlords but also offers a terrific foundational platform from which many future products can naturally grow out of.
From the short-term rental point of view, the positions that Marriott, Hilton, and other hospitality brands are taking with regards to home-sharing, consistency, and demand, indicate that professionally managed short-term rental companies could be on to something.
Data is in the center of business. From tracking buying habits in the retail world to predicting fraud in the banking world, data scientists are figuring out the best ways to extract the most value for their customers and companies.
Housing supply is constrained, particularly in dense core urban areas across the US. Supply simply cannot keep up with demand.
Today, companies need to be creative with their business development practices...
Last week Nine Four Ventures welcomed Sophia Ghadamian to the team.
Generally speaking, services-focused SMBs in flooring, painting, plumbing, roofing, etc., historically concentrated their efforts within a hyper-local geography to service their immediate local community.
The conscious effort to make an impact and change the narrative is one in which the millennial generation, and those to follow, feel strongly about.
We believe that maintaining the status quo as it pertains to technology is not a choice if you want to be successful, and looking forward, we hope to be a catalyst to drive technological change and adoption in the industry.
Technology can not only reduce costs but also increase revenue.
The introduction of new technologies provide owners and operators an added layer of amenity that once wasn’t available to them.
Since so many industries collide with the built environment, monitoring the startup landscape can be daunting. To move up the learning curve the fastest, we believe firms new to the space should partner with those that already have the knowledge and networks in PropTech.
Nine Four Ventures not only appreciates founders taking this approach but also believes many “wedge” opportunities exist in PropTech today across verticals...
Through our vertically integrated structure, as a VC and through our partners that own and operate a variety of real estate asset types, we have a precise understanding of the hardships real estate teams face...
A trend that Nine Four is seeing is the increased prevalence of companies raising a ‘PropCo’ to support their legacy operating business (“OpCo”).
We believe technical expertise combined with our real estate experience and strategic real estate limited partner network can create a unique unfair competitive advantage.
In this post we’ll explore how Stay Alfred plans to give back to their loyal guests as well as the importance of customer retention that’s applicable to companies outside of the STR space.
This week I had the opportunity to present some of the technology trends and companies we’re seeing for the Mortgage Banker Association in Washington DC.
Over the past few years, PropTech has experienced an explosion of space-as-a-service startups. These businesses are optimizing real estate assets and re-inventing how employers manage their offices, employees travel and people rent their living space.
At Nine Four Ventures, we are excited for this sector to take flight. There will be endless conversations about the pros and cons for both the owners/developers and renters but as I see it, the value it will provide to the diverse demographic of today’s renters will be invaluable.
Today’s modern workplace is shifting towards a more dynamic, fast changing and disparate environment. As a result, high growth startups need to keep up and provide the newest and best office amenities to keep employee retention high and churn low in this competitive recruiting marketplace.
The concept of self-touring (a prospective renter or home buyer tours the property on their own, without an agent) has been around for a long time, but with the help of smart locks, smart home devices, and software integrations, we are seeing the true potential of self-touring.
The Future of Work – that is, the new paradigm of interactions between workers, jobs or employment arrangements, and their physical/virtual workspaces – has significant implications for the Real Estate sector.
WeWork is an example of a company that’s spent a ton of money on technology and acquisitions yet is still challenged daily on whether it’s actually a tech company.
This year’s AIM (Apartment Innovation and Marketing) Conference takes place on May 5-8th in Huntington Beach, CA. We are thrilled to be participating on the panel “Don’t Build It, Invest In It: The New Operator Approach to Technology”.
...the lack of formidable software tools available to contractors, subcontractors and suppliers exacerbates major manual pain points around purchase orders, invoices, receipts and liens. Today, we’re going to take a deeper dive into those downstream challenges and potential solutions.
We believe the Pilot Program provides startups, our partners, and Nine Four Ventures with incredible value.
In a space where technology is still uncharted territory, but also celebrated, where can startups make the most impact and how will agencies benefit?
We believe that Stay Alfred, and other short term operators, have a similar opportunity as WeWork and that master leasing units is just the beginning.
The construction industry is massive. It’s one of the largest sectors of the global economy representing $5 trillion in payments annually, with the US construction industry representing a $1T market.
To achieve the goal of reducing the globe’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero percent by 2050, we need the vast majority of commercial property owners to become more energy efficient with a focus on renewable energy sources.
Nine Four Ventures is very mindful of the disruptive shift that is taking place within the short-term rental space.
PropTech refers to products and services that impact the built world and the people, processes, and ecosystems that interact with it.
Today, it can be argued that it is easier to start a software company than ever before, as infrastructure (ie AWS, APIs, micro-services, open source, etc) needed to start a software company is more readily available and cost effective than ever.
Nine Four Ventures’ partnership with the Laramar Group is on the right path to tackle the biggest impediment to growth in CREtech: adoption.
We are building a program that will unify, educate and promote growth through the sharing of information we feel is valuable to real estate practitioners
The traditional real estate operating model is also undergoing some evolution.
It is our vertically-integrated approach combined with our trusted LP base that enables us to provide creative, flexible investment solutions and always keep the best interests of portfolio company founders at heart.
Underwriting software needs to be flexible in order to achieve mass adoption. Prior to joining Nine Four Ventures, I spent 8+ years in multifamily and commercial real estate acquisitions, where I underwrote nearly $10B in transactions.
Our tech forward commercial partner, the Laramar Group, believes that proptech is a fundamental component of its current and future operations.
Taking advantage of your real estate as a sales channel requires knowledge, understanding, and the right startup pipeline.
Nine Four Ventures continues to be excited for the future of real estate tech.
Nine Four Ventures believes scooters and micromobility solutions are going to be meaningful part of our everyday lives
The advancement of machine learning is undeniably valuable as we look at technologies being conceptualized within the RE space. Whether it be for residential, multifamily, or commercial, the growth potential it creates is something we at Nine Four feel strongly about.
This week I had the opportunity to speak at the CREtech conference in NY, and I think the experience I had at the event is representative of where the PropTech space stands at the moment: lots of momentum, lots of excitement, and a lot of unknowns.
Modular home builders benefit from many cost savings and pass along some of those to prospective buyers. Manual labor is traditionally the biggest expense associated with every construction project.
As we are in the early innings of real estate technology adoption, we are seeing new tech-enabled platforms enter the space. Many of these platforms are challenging the traditional incumbents in the space, ranging from service providers to hardware to property management systems.
Stay Alfred, a Nine Four Ventures portfolio company, is building something I would categorize as game-changing with respect to multifamily.
The Benefits of Controlled Access and Smart Locks
Owning a home is the American Dream. It represents a path to financial freedom and is typically the largest single asset an individual owns.
In the “amenities arm race” of the multifamily industry, one often overlooked amenity is providing reliable, fast internet to residents. Internet needs to work immediately when a resident moves in to their new home.
Marketing professionals in today’s multifamily space can all agree that standing out is a full-time job. Understanding where processes can be more streamlined may potentially answer some fundamental questions when building technology around this category.
“Space-as-a-service” is a term that generally refers to an asset-light business model that allows a consumer or business to rent space that suits their needs rather than going through a more traditional capital and time-consuming buy, build, and own process.
If retail investors do not have the necessary capital on hand to buy rental income properties, how do we solve this problem?
A collection of articles from around the web curated by the Nine Four Ventures team
Controlled access and smart locks will ease the friction of implementing new technologies and services in multifamily buildings.
Given the implications that mobility has for real estate, we believe that real estate owners and operators should pay close attention to how mobility networks can impact the demand for properties
When trying to set yourself apart from the competition, first impression is everything.
Five main solutions to this problem, all with their own pro’s and con’s.
With 30 years of industry experience, Nine Four Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in innovative #proptech companies across the globe.
On the surface, smart lighting seems like a relatively simple and easy way to “smarten” your communities. Just screw in a smart light bulb or add a smart outlet! However, this is a category where there is more than one route to take, all with different pros and cons.
For a building owner to capture spend I believe they need to own a platform that their residents access those products and services through
I’ve sat in on a lot of meetings between industry players and startups targeting the residential real estate space. Something that surprises me is the frequency with which I hear the same pieces of feedback and “things you should understand” from industry professionals.
Predictive analytics is a sliver of a broker or agent’s technology stack, but it’s a very meaningful one. Winning business is the first step to success, followed by delighting a client to the point where they’ll refer you and drive more business.
Today, smart home technology may be viewed as a “wow factor” that differentiates one apartment community from another. Tomorrow, smart home technology will be a requirement...
t seems like there are a few camps of thinking when it comes to how technology is going to impact the residential real estate agent. One end of the spectrum is the camp believes that real estate agents will always be around and the things agents do aren’t going to change much.
Nine Four Ventures, a vertically integrated venture capital firm that invests in technology companies impacting real estate and its stakeholders across and between each phase of an asset’s lifecycle.
