Many great things have been happening at the companies that presented at the first two Realogy FWD events so we thought it was time to do a quick round-up of recent significant news.
Matterport, which won the top prize at Realogy FWD 2014, raised $16 million in a Series B round of funding last July.
And in January of this year, one of our affiliates, Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty rolled out Matterport’s 3D touring technology.
SendHub, which was named a finalist at last year’s event, also raised some capital last year, receiving $5 million to continue building its business communication products.
Zumper, also a finalist last year, launched a new feature called Zapp, which enables renters to apply for a property within the app. Zapp uses a standard credit report and rental application to enable renters to fill in their info once and be able to submit it to brokers and property managers multiple times across properties.
Closing Time pivoted a bit with a rebrand and expansion of services under the name Amitree. The app is no longer just about getting buyers through contract to closing. The app now includes a personalized readiness score, among other things, to help brokers and agents better qualify buyers up front.
After a string of Realtor safety incidences have come up in various markets, Curb Call decided to add its own safety features within its app. The feature, “Radius,” serves as a “panic button” agents can press to trigger an immediate text to their broker and emergency contact.
Deductr, which automates expense, mileage and time tracking for independent contractors like Realtors, struck a couple of partnerships, including one with zipLogix and with RE/MAX.
KISI last summer took the grand prize at the Hacker Challenge hosted by RE Tech NYC and Urban Land Institute.
Slide Bureau, which showed us their simple, slick templates to make presentations look great, unfortunately has shuttered this arm of business for the time being.
Floored, which won the top prize at the inaugural FWD event in 2013, recently landed a partnership with StreetEasy to bring 3-D floor plans to New York City apartment hunters.
BuyerMLS, a finalist in 2013, has expanded its buyer database product suite to enable white-labeling and include deeper data analysis and predictive behavior.
HomeZada is another past finalist that expanded its product offering to include the entire homeowner cycle from buying to owning to selling.
Homelight recently raised another $3 million to help match buyers and sellers to real estate agents.
Keyzio, which started as a platform for buyers to reach out to owners of homes they loved – whether for sale or not – last year added brokerage services to its business.
OnVedeo struck a couple deals with PlanOmatic and Partners Trust to add automated videos to listings.
Planwise spun out PlanwiseConnect, its business-facing product to help real estate and lending professionals connect with clients through portable financial calculators.
RealScout raised a $6 million round to fuel its real estate search technology.
RealtyMogul, an online marketplace for accredited investors to pool money and buy shares of real property, has been growing. The company said it has facilitated over $47 million for 175 properties to date with both equity and debt from accredited and institutional investors.
Relocality is taking its neighborhood matching service to Europe. And Storefront, a retail real estate space matchmaker, expanded to Chicago.
A lot has happened with FWD presenters since our last conference in June 2014. We’re gearing up the planning for 2015 now and are excited to say that FWD will take place in San Francisco on June 23, 2015 and the RealogyFWD.com website is now accepting applications – the deadline is May 1st.
Apply now and stay tuned!