Proptech Start-Ups to Get Funding of USD 100 Million

Venture Catalysts and Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) have jointly setup a USD 100 million fund to help real estate start-ups. The objective of setting up this sort of fund is said to support the start-ups have potential to bring changes in the real estate sector with the help of technology.

The fund that both companies have decided to put in the real estate start-ups will help start-ups who are either in their early stage or in growth stage. Start-ups who can innovate and find solutions with the help of technology, data analytics, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality would be core focus for this fund.

Venture Catalyst is a start-up accelerator for fresh start-ups. It provides services like capital, business mentorship and networks building to start-ups. Venture Catalysts mostly invests in the range of INR 2-15 Cr per start-up and has geographical presence in countries like the UAE, HK, UK, US, Singapore, Canada and India.  Start-ups serving to segments of real-estate like including residential, commercial, institutional (hotels, schools, hospitals) and industrial (warehouses, factories etc) will be helped by this fund.

Harsh Vardhan Patodia, President of CREDAI said, "The large corpus will help deliver on the PM's vision of 'Make in India' and help strengthen the promise of the start-up community as India continues to emerge as one of the start-up hubs globally”.

According to CREDAI, government initiatives like the 'Make in India' and 'Techade' will also be helped by this initiative and improve the pace of growth of digitalization in the country. It further said that the real estate sector can become a USD 1 trillion economy by 2030, from the current value of USD 3 billion , only with the the heIp of innovations and technological advancements.

"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 as the processes gradually become more efficient, resulting in enhanced asset returns, decreased friction, and increased transparency," Patodia said.

CREDAI said that its network base of more than 13,000 members from over 256 different fields can help the start-ups to grow. Additionally, It is planning to provide mentorship and guide the start-ups to make real estate sector more technology driven.

"With the advent of 5G, it is important to provide a platform for rising entrepreneurs to disrupt the industry and introduce innovative methods to overcome any challenges the industry currently faces, said Boman Irani, President-Elect, CREDAI.

Anuj Golecha, Cofounder, Venture Catalysts said that while most of the industry came online post pandemic, real estate was one of the few sectors that adopted technology way before the pandemic hit.

"However, post COVID era, this adoption has further increased to boost sales and experience both and hence there is a need for a dedicated fund that would help propel growth in the sector," Golecha said.