Top Proptech News of 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, we wanted to take a look at the biggest proptech news headlines over the past year.

Below is a round up of some of the good, bad and ugly stories that shaped the proptech sector in 2019.

SquareFoot acquires PivotDesk, enables tenants to rent unused space

February 2019

PropTech firm SquareFoot, a commercial real estate brokerage, announced the acquisition of PivotDesk a subletting platform formerly owned by coworking provider Industrious, which enables office tenants to rent out their unused desk and office space to smaller companies.

SquareFoot says the new acquisition strategically positions the company to meet the growing demand from businesses for flexible space offerings making it a “one-stop-shop” in the commercial office marketplace.

Read full article by Urvashi Verma on In-Building Tech

We Acquires Managed by Q

April 2019

Managed by Q, the office management platform based out of New York, has today been acquired by The We Company, formerly known as WeWork.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The WSJ reports that it was a cash and stock deal. Managed by Q, which has 500 employees, will remain as a wholly owned separate entity and CEO Dan Teran will remain following the acquisition to join WeWork leadership.

Read the full article by Jordan Crook on Techcrunch

Real Estate Startup VTS Joins Unicorn Club After New Funding Round

May 2019

The real-estate technology firm VTS raised $90 million in its latest funding round, one of the largest venture investments ever in the commercial property market.

The funding was led by two of the world’s biggest landlords, Brookfield Asset Management and industrial property owner GLP, and values VTS at $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read the full article by Peter Grant on WSJ

M&A mania continues in CRE tech: RDM acquired by Building Engines

May 2019

For years, one of the oldest and steadiest players in the commercial real estate tech space watched as upstarts sprang up, raised heaps of venture funding, and engaged in a hectic period of M&A activity. But it has finally been swept up in the wave.

Real Data Management, which measures buildings for some of the country’s biggest landlords and helps them keep track of their office space on the cloud, is being acquired by Boston-based Building Engines, The Real Deal has learned.

Read the full article by Hiten Samtani on The Real Deal

Silver Lake-backed startup Lightbox makes even more RE Tech acquisition noise

May 2019

Months after paying over $200 million to acquire real estate data firms EDR and ExactBid, a tech startup that’s attempting to create a Bloomberg Terminal-like platform for real estate just picked up two additional companies.

New York-based Lightbox, backed by venture capital firm Silver Lake Partners, said Monday that it had acquired Real Capital Markets, a commercial real estate marketplace, and Digital Map Products, a cloud-based location and mapping platform. The firm did not disclose the value of the acquisitions.

Read the full article by David Jeans on The Real Deal

Fifth Wall Ventures raises $503M for second real estate fund

July 2019

Fifth Wall Ventures, an investor in Clutter, b8ta, ClassPass, Lime and others, has raised $503 million for its sophomore venture capital fund.

The firm, which closed on $212 million for its debut fund in May 2017, prefers to invest in the burgeoning real estate industry, but has made opportunistic investments in other sectors.

The Los Angeles firm counts real estate owners as limited partners, as well as a number of global partners, including U.S.-based Cushman & Wakefield, Japan’s Mitsubishi Estate and the U.K.s’ British Land and SEGRO.

Read the full article by Kate Clark on Techcrunch

Hello Alfred’s Acquisition of Bixby Reveals Ambitions Beyond Concierge Services

July 2019

This week Hello Alfred, a resident experience company, announced the acquisition of property management software Bixby. I was especially excited by the news because I am a fan of both companies. I have written about Hello Alfred’s fresh new perspective on multi-family amenities and their amazing human touch in doing so. I have also reported on Bixby’s growth of services that include everything from work order management to tenant engagement.

Read full article by Franco Faraudo on Propmodo

Merging Proptech: Honest Buildings Acquired by Procore

July 2019

Procore Technologies, Inc., which provides construction management software, agreed to buy Honest Buildings, Inc., a company that creates project management software for owners and developers. This acquisition is aimed at enhaning Procore’s ability to manage projects from start to finish. The companies plan to use their platforms to create unified financials and track costs from the initial investments to the final expenditures at the subcontractor or material vendor level.

Read the full article by Betsy Kim on GlobeSt

MRI Software acquires Leverton, ProLease + Rockend

August 2019

MRI Software, a global real estate software firm, has acquired Leverton, an AI-powered data extraction tool for real estate and corporate documents.

The acquisition gives property owners, service providers, and corporate occupiers wider access to Leverton’s automated lease abstraction application, to turn unstructured information in leases and legal documents into data sets that can be mined for insights.

Read full article by Nicola Byrne on Placetech

WeWork Withdraws IPO Filing

September 2019

The coworking giant, less than two months after it filed an initial public offering prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission — a document called an S-1 — has withdrawn that filing, it announced Monday. While the company said it plans to one day go public, it will need to begin the process anew to do that.

Read full article by Ethan Rothstein on Bisnow

VTS Buys PropertyCapsule to Expand Online Real Estate Offerings

October 2019

VTS Inc., a closely held provider of online real estate services, acquired another web-based platform, PropertyCapsule, in a bid to fuel growth.

The deal was valued at $20 million, said a person familiar with the terms who asked not to be identified because the price wasn’t announced. PropertyCapsule helps market commercial real estate.

Read the full article by Gwen Everett on Bloomberg

Berkadia Mentors CRE Startups In New Program

November 2019

Berkadia recently announced the launch of BeEngaged, a program within the firm’s Innovation Division which mentors startups in the commercial real estate industry. The new launch provides startups with strategic counsel, resources and an environment to test and grow new concepts.

BeEngaged has two components: BeEngaged Network and BeEngaged Lab.

Read the full article by Tanya Sterling on Globest

Ten-X Commercial lays off nearly half its workforce

November 2019

Ten-X Commercial, an online real estate transaction platform, laid off half its workforce after efforts to sell the company fell through.

Close to 100 employees in offices in Texas, New York and California were given notice on Monday morning during a call with executives, according to people on the call and those familiar with the matter.

Read full article by David Jeans on The Real Deal

WeWork lays off 2,400 employees

November 2019

 

Embattled office-sharing startup WeWork confirmed on Thursday that it had cut 2,400 jobs in a round of layoffs following its failed IPO attempt. Several sources told Business Insider that layoffs had begun November 11. WeWork met with employees to announce the larger round of layoffs on Thursday at 10 a.m ET, another source familiar with the matter said.

Read full article by Kevin Webb and Meghan Morris on Business Insider

CREtech Acquires FUTURE PropTech To Form The Largest Global Real Estate Tech Conference And Research Company

December 2019

CREtech (cretech.com), the leading commercial real estate technology conference and research company, has announced the acquisition of FUTURE PropTech, Europe’s largest events company also devoted to the real estate tech sector. The acquisition of the London-based company represents CREtech’s commitment to building the largest international PropTech community through a new global expansion strategy.

Read the press release on CREtech