By Aaron Block, co-founder and managing director, MetaProp NYC
New York City has steadily and increasingly become the home for technology related real estate ventures.
Tapping into the rapidly growing interest in technological innovation taking place locally and globally, MetaProp NYC, the world’s premier real estate technology (“RETech” or “PropTech”) nexus, was created in spring 2015 to provide the highest level of support and growth for real estate technology startups through its fund, accelerator and advisory businesses.
Zachary Aarons, Clelia Peters, and I — as MetaProp NYC’s founding partners — gathered an eclectic and successful group of real estate, tech and entrepreneurial enthusiasts who wanted to apply their interests in a meaningful and productive way in support of investment and growth of tech in the real estate industry.
Sharing a long-term vision for technology’s enormous impact on real estate, this cohort of enthusiasts have become advisors, mentors and investors in our company, our accelerated startups and in PropTech in general.
Today, the MetaProp NYC real estate technology accelerator is the world’s leading growth program for early stage companies. Based in the heart of Silicon Alley, up to 10, or approximately three percent, of the best technology driven real estate industry startups are selected from more than 300 applicants to participate in the 22-week intensive growth program in New York City each year.
The total number of company applications we received doubled in 2016 and spanned 35 countries.
Finalists are selected based on 20 criteria, such as who makes up the management team; does the company solve a “big” problem and the overall quality of the technology itself. Applicants are screened through several rounds of interviews and chosen by a committee of professionals who specialize in entrepreneurship, real estate and technology. Each program culminates in bi-coastal Demo Days [Register for the Jan. 26 NYC event] for partners, investors, VCs and media.
The accelerator boasts 100+ mentors, 10+ world-renowned corporate partners including REBNY, a founding partner.
MetaProp NYC’s team and strategic seed stage funds have invested in 60+ technology companies across the full real estate value chain that have raised more than $2 billion and employ over 1,500 people globally.
Among our 2016-2017 accelerator of PropTech startups, driving real estate innovation through technology, are: Bowery, a tech-enabled commercial appraisal firm; Enertiv, which harnesses energy data and analytics at the equipment level to optimize building performance and eliminate energy waste; Flip, the first peer-to-peer property leasing marketplace, allowing tenants to flexibly trade leases; hOM, tech-enabled amenity management that partners with landlords to deliver fitness classes and crowd-sourced events to under-utilized spaces; Ravti, a software to track, manage, and procure HVAC for sophisticated commercial real estate; and OnTarget, which provides visual project management and analytics for construction, with powerful 3D rendering.
MetaProp Advisors provides strategic advisory, innovation outsourcing, growth consulting, communications, events and market research for real estate companies that are serious about innovation. MP Advisors produces the MetaPropCast podcast interview series, featuring leading PropTech CEOs, VCs and other industry leaders, and the Real Estate CEOs Talk PropTech videos.
Partnering with REBNY, MetaProp Advisors produces New York City Real Estate Tech Week, featuring thousands of attendees from around the world, and its flagship event, the MetaProp NYC-MIPIM PropTech Summit. In addition, MetaProp Advisors publishes the Global Real Estate Technology Confidence Index.
This past April, innovative real estate technology (RETech) companies joined real estate thought leaders and New York City Economic Development Corporation speakers at the first NYC RETech Expo, hosted by MetaProp NYC and REBNY at the board’s Midtown headquarters. The all-day expo featured some of the newest developments in RETech and innovative ideas that aid sustainability across the real estate value chain.
MetaProp NYC also partners with REBNY through thought leadership contributions to Real Estate Weekly’s technology page; aiding other key NYC PropTech events such as cre.tech’s monthly NYC technology educational event series, and helping top MetaProp NYC accelerator startups navigate REBNY membership to identify opportunities for early technology tests, pilots and investments.
This Thursday (Jan. 26) we will host the MetaProp NYC Demo Day when our 2016 accelerator startups Bowery, Enertiv, Flip, hOM, OnTarget and Ravti will present their work during a summit of the industry’s top minds , venture capitalists, program mentors, corporate partners, real estate  executives, media, government officials and others. Demo Day takes place from 9 a.m. to noon, at 7 World Trade Center.
At MetaProp NYC, we grow more excited every day about the future of PropTech in New York City and around the world.
Here are some ways that REBNY members can join us and get involved: sign up for our newsletter (metaprop.org) for news, events, blogs and more; Apply to mentor our startups (metaprop.org/mentors); Have your company join REBNY, RICS, ICSC, Zillow, Millennium Partners, Warburg Realty, Silicon Valley Bank and others as a corporate sponsor or partner (ablock@metaprop.org); Or, inquire about joining our #1 PropTech seed investment group (ablock@metaprop.org).
