The 28 hottest proptech startups, as chosen by leading venture capitalists

From left, Assaf Karmon of TurnoverBnB, Nora Apsel of Morty, and Sonu Panda of Prescriptive Data. This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.

Real-estate tech companies squeeze inefficiencies out of construction, home-buying, and other areas.

VCs invested a record $32 billion into these property technology, or proptech, startups last year.

We surveyed venture capitalists to select 28 of the hottest proptech companies right now.

The pandemic has changed the landscape of the real-estate world and revealed a new set of challenges.

A new crop of property-technology, or proptech, startups is making noise by attacking some of those challenges head-on.

Insider reached out to more than 20 venture investors who focus on real-estate and construction technology to ask for their nominations of the proptech startups best positioned to address the shortcomings of the industry or that are tackling trends exacerbated by the pandemic. Among those trends are soaring home prices , a broken supply chain , a house-flipping craze, and a growing work-from-home culture.

There’s no shortage of funding. Venture-capital investments in private real-estate-technology companies hit a record $32 billion in 2021, up 28% from the previous year, according to the Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation . Proptechs dedicated to the steamy residential sector drew nearly half the total funding, by far the largest single share of the pie.

Last year’s list taught us that obstacles lead to innovation, creating new breeds of companies in the real-estate industry. We compiled this list of 28 startups after evaluating the VC nominations.

We used the companies’ self-reported fundraising numbers, but added in Crunchbase data as a supplement for firms that declined to comment. We asked each startup for its valuation and revenue, but many declined to share that information as they seek additional funds.

Here are the buzziest proptech companies right now, presented in alphabetical order. Agora

Agora CEO Maria Rioumine. City: San Francisco

Year founded: 2018

Total funding: $45 million

What it does: Agora helps commercial contractors order and track materials, automate data entry. It aims to bring everybody who touches the supply chain together onto a single platform to ease communication.

Why it’s hot: Supply-chain hang-ups have been the bane of global business since the pandemic began more than two years ago, and prognostications for a return to normal have failed to come true. Agora, then, seems to be in the right place at the right time.

Its platform, which helps streamline acquisitions of construction materials like lumber and PVC pipe, has become invaluable for customers who might have had to switch suppliers, for reasons like lack of inventory or price volatility , the cofounder and CEO Maria Rioumine said.

“Especially in the last year and a half, we’ve heard from hundreds of contractors across the country how hard it’s been continuing to stay on schedule and continuing to stay on budget when they’ve had this crazy fluctuation in prices,” Rioumine said.

Contractors’ adoption of Agora’s products have resulted in a quintupling of revenue between February 2021 and February 2022, she said.Having an all-in-one shop has also been a time-saver for contractors facing another side effect of the pandemic: labor shortages. Contractors in the field can focus on the project at hand, she added, rather than paperwork.”Field time has really been precious,” Rioumine said. Daybase Daybase’s cofounders, Doug Chambers, chief operating officer, left, and Joel Steinhaus, CEO. City: New York Year founded: 2020 Total funding: $9.6 million What it does: Daybase operates flexible coworking spaces built specifically for hybrid workers. Why it’s hot: The coworking industry has had an eventful three years. WeWork’s fall from grace and failed initial public offering captured the nation’s attention to the point where the company’s story has been televised, starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway. The pandemic worsened the stress in an industry with long-term debt but short-term revenues, and some of the biggest names closed their doors, laid off thousands, or went bankrupt.But out of the pandemic could come coworking’s biggest opportunity yet, as hybrid work has many corporations dropping leases and choosing flexible office spaces that will allow them to be agile in the future. Daybase, founded by former WeWork executives, is offering alternatives for hybrid workers looking for spaces that are close to home but far from distracting children, pets, or roommates. In real-estate parlance, the term is called “third space,” or something between the office and the home. Space can be booked by the hour, by the day, or just for one important Zoom call. The company’s […]

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