Australia is on the cusp of a golden age in proptech – a moment when both internal and external forces are aligning to bring the industry into the spotlight.
In the past 12 months, Proptech Association Australia has observed a consistent stream of proptech acquisitions and investments as established suppliers snap up quality tech and founders are rewarded for their hard work.
PTAA founder and president Kylie Davis said multi-million dollar deals had included Domain purchasing IDS and RealBase, CoreLogic buying AiRE, ActivePipe selling to Moxiworks in the US, MRI buying Box and Dice, Reapit purchasing Console and Archistar buying Snaploader. There’s also been a flurry of major investments in scaling tech solutions from Realestate.com.au.
“There is an extraordinary hunger from investors in this space who, beyond looking for the potential to uncover an investment unicorn, seek clever innovations that will secure the ongoing value of their existing bricks and mortar portfolios,” Kylie said.
“It is always a challenge to sell a business or find a corporate investor. It’s always a challenge to go from being the founder whose job it is to solve every problem to being part of a bigger corporate team.
“But, the current stakes are truly win, win, win.”
The PTAA will spotlight the topic, How I Made My Proptech Worth Millions, at its inaugural conference, the Proptech Forum in Sydney on October 13.
On stage to share their personal experience will be AiRE (Artificial Intelligence for Real Estate) co-founder Sarah Bell, Chris Spanos from IDS and Realtair co-founder Peter Matthews.
A commentator, agitator, and innovator, Sarah helps real estate businesses solve the problems of cost and scale by upskilling existing resources, while assisting them to transition to digital resources using AiRE’s robot employee, Rita.
“Sarah has a decade of front-line experience as a real estate practitioner and agency owner, bringing tactical insights, subject matter expertise and just enough street cred to the table for creating business solutions that are intelligent by design and Cx obsessed,” Kylie said.
Peter has served the real estate industry for more than 40 years, having started listing and selling real estate at the age of 19.
Currently REINSW president, he has previously held integral corporate roles within the Ray White group. He is an experienced franchise office owner, and award-winning auctioneer – amassing more than 25,000 auctions across Australia and New Zealand. In the digital space, he has performed key real estate roles for Fairfax.
“In 2016, Peter co-founded Realtair, which was forged from a frustration with escalating costs of administration in both sales and property management,” Kylie said.
“Seeing an opportunity, he created a middleware platform made from a unique combination of software and offshore resources to create efficiencies and value for real estate agents and businesses. Realestate.com.au is now one of Realtair’s biggest investors and shows you don’t have to sell the entire business to reap the rewards.”
Peter and Sarah are just two of the speakers who will share their knowledge at the Proptech Forum.
“In this jam-packed day of big ideas, we’ll be exploring the technology, market trends and issues on the horizon that are impacting how we conceive, develop, promote and scale proptech solutions,” Kylie said.
“Bring your team and join us for a day of insights, problem-solving, new perspectives and connection.”
The event will be held at the NSW Teachers Federation Conference Centre, 37 Reservoir St, Surry Hills from 8.30am to 5pm.
Tickets are priced from $245 for groups of 5 or more to $395. Proptech Association members pay $295.