Proptech startups get $100mn fund support

Photo Cap: (from right) Anuj B Golecha, co-founder, Venture Catalysts, Binitha Dalal, Banking Convener, Credai National, Boman Irani, president elect, Credai National, Anil Jain, co-founder, Venture Catalysts, Dhaval Ajmera, secretary, Credai MCHI and Aniket Bharadia, founder, Propcatalyst

New Delhi The Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) and Venture Catalysts, an integrated incubator and accelerator for startups, announced partnership to set up a $100 million fund.

This fund will invest in early to growth stage startups that have the potential to transform the real estate industry through technology, data analytics, blockchain, artificial intelligence and augmented reality. The fund would focus on startups catering to all the major segments of real estate including residential, commercial, institutional (hotels, schools, hospitals) and industrial (warehouses, factories).

The real estate association said that this platform, being launched in the 75th year of India's Independence, will support the 'Make in India' and 'Techade' initiative of the government working towards digitalization of the estimated USD 300 billion real estate sector in country. Further innovations and technological advancements are expected to boost the sector in becoming a USD 1 trillion economy by 2030.

Credai further added that the partnership comes amidst a transformative stage in the real estate industry experiencing a digital and technological evolution ushered in by innovative design, logistical advancements, and artificial intelligence-based tech.

"With the rapid development in the Prop Tech domain, the use of AR/VR or AI to help homebuyers expedite the process of closing deals will help provide developers with better liquidity. The large corpus will help strengthen the promise of the startup community as India continues to emerge as one of the startup hubs globally," explained Harsh Vardhan Patodia, president, Credai as he inaugurated the talent hunt for real estate startups.

Credai will provide startups with access to its network base of more than 13,000 members from 256 different industrial fields in real estate such as developers, vendors, channel partners, and promoters among others. Besides, it will support portfolio startups with mentorship and work towards making the real estate sector more digitalized.

Talking about the need for a proptech fund, Anuj Golecha, co-founder, Venture Catalysts said, "Through this fund, we expect to back some innovative startups in the coming months. Besides, with recent unicorns such as Livspace and NoBroker, the proptech segment has received a massive sentiment from the VC community."

Anuj further added that proptech in India has so far been limited to residential market places such as MagicBricks, NoBroker, 99Acres, Housing.com among others, but technology is helping cater to all the important aspects of real estate right from searching for a residential property to helping technology plan large industrial spaces.