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The real estate technology world turns its eyes to Dallas this week, where startups promoting promising tools for practitioners are hoping for a national launching pad, at the National Association of REALTORS®’ Innovation, Opportunity & Investment Summit. The conference, which takes place Tuesday and Wednesday, brings together real estate pros, technology developers, and investors to collaborate and grow new cutting-edge innovations for the industry.
The iOi Pitch Battle, a popular event hosted by Second Century Ventures, NAR’s strategic investment arm, will give 12 tech startups a chance to compete in a “Shark Tank”–style competition. The battle, which will be livestreamed on Facebook and LinkedIn starting at 2:45 p.m. Central time Tuesday, has the potential to identify the next big innovation for real estate. Viewers may also vote on their favorite pitch of the event. Curbio, a company aimed at revolutionizing presale home renovations, won the grand prize at the Pitch Battle in 2019, which included $15,000 and a booth at the REALTORS® Conference & Expo that year. The 2018 winner was BoxBrownie.com.
The iOi conference, which also includes educational sessions and technology forecasts from thought leaders in the space, was not held in 2020 due to restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
“The iOi Summit Pitch Battle is an exceptional platform for startups to share their ideas not only with the judges but also with potential investors, clients, and REALTORS®,” NAR CEO Bob Goldberg said in 2019. “Our goal with this competition is to identify and showcase concepts poised to help drive the real estate industry forward.”
© National Association of REALTORS®
Learn more about the 12 startups competing this year:
- Docitt: examines a consumer’s debts and credit to orchestrate the optimal credit profile and the best solutions to improve the consumer’s purchasing power.
- Parafin: a cloud-based design platform for real estate developers to instantly generate building designs, budgets, and pro formas for their next construction project.
- Renter Mentor: a platform that provides a centralized, secure, and automated way to list, manage, and find affordable housing.
- Milestones: a customer-experience platform real estate pros can provide to their clients for buying and selling property as well as managing homeownership.
- Matrix Rental Solutions: a fintech digital application that provides deeper insight into credit profiles of would-be tenants by automating the application process and providing all necessary data through a single platform.
- UnderTheDoormat: a business professionalizing the short-term rental industry and transforming both the property and hospitality industries with three unique products.
- Restb.ai: a suite of AI-powered solutions that enable real estate companies to instantly extract insights (room type, home features, styles and condition analysis, and more) from their property imagery.
- Otso: provides A-rated insurance coverage for lease security, an alternative to traditional cash deposits and letters of credit, which provides landlords increased protection against default.
- Zipi: reimagines a fractured system to easily facilitate and transact real estate with their back-office, accounting, and digital payment offerings.
- Remarkably: a marketing and business intelligence platform that aggregates disparate marketing and leasing data, monitors and analyzes performance, forecasts future trends, and more.
- HighNote: a platform that streamlines the sales pitch process for agents' listing presentations, offers, new buyers, and agent recruiting.
- Feather: a next-generation furniture and home decor rental service that makes it possible for people to find beautiful furniture quickly, without the upfront cost and commitment of traditional retail.