Russian PropTech startup FinCase received $1.5 million funding round A.
Investing in construction and the real estate market is no longer conservative. The world economy dictates its own rules and actively stimulates the digitalization of these industries. In 2019 alone , about $ 20.2 billion was invested in startups offering innovative technological solutions and business models for the real estate market ( PropTech ) , in 2020 this amount increased to $ 28.3 billion and, according to preliminary estimates of experts, will increase further by at least 33% by 2023. As for Russia, in 2019 more than 700 million rubles were invested , and by the end of 2020 investments in PropTech startups can reach 1.5 billion rubles. This indicates the potential of the IT sector in the real estate market around the world and the emergence of unicorns in the near future.
The growth of investment and interest in the real estate market is associated with the strengthening of confidence in it. During the first half of 2018 the global confidence index PropTech from MetaProp increased by 7% and with each month continues to rise. This is supported by an increase in the number of deals, increased financing and corporate productivity, as well as positive outlooks for M&A activities.
Fincase entered the market in 2015 with a Scoring Analysis of Value (SAV) system for the commercial real estate sector. It is based on traditional methods, tested by evaluative practice, to which we have added modern technologies such as AI and ML. As a result, we got an assessment algorithm that is more accurate and efficient in comparison with the manual realtor’s assessment .
In 5 years we have grown into a large IT player with a turnover of about $ 1 million. The company did not stop at the main product — we developed Easy Appraisal service and an ERP system for managing business processes. Easy Appraisal is a convenient constructor of assessment reports, thanks to the automation of processes, it accelerates the result by 4 times and minimizes the possibility of errors due to the human factor. ERP is a transparent system for administering data on real estate units with the possibility of scoring analysis. It stores a pool of data on contracts, assignments, reports and analyzes objects, their value, tracks the chronology of events within the assessment process, that is, contains all the information on real estate transactions.
Alfa-Bank became the first major customer of FinCase: the solution was used by the bank to assess collateralized real estate and make other decisions on real estate transactions. After that, a long-term partnership began with key banks Société Générale (Rosbank, Rusfinance Bank), Credit Europe Bank, Baltinvestbank, Ak-Bars. We also cooperate with large real estate agencies. The new joint project with Knight Frank is a closed platform for buying, selling and renting luxury real estate.But not only realtors and banks are potential users of smart scoring. FinCase is now actively cooperating with the public sector, accounting for up to 60% of existing clients.
The scope of use of intelligent tools is very wide and there is a huge potential for the development and application of our products in various fields. In September 2020 , FinСase raised $ 1.5 million in venture funding. This is the largest investment in the history of the company. Now FinСase is a working business model, a customer base, market experience, an established team, innovative products and ambitious goals for transforming the real estate market. We are constantly implementing new projects to use AI to work with data. The main development goal for the near future will be the development of new modules and directions of the flagship product Scoring Аnalysis of Value. By the end of 2021 the functional of SAV will be extended to modules scoring for movable property (cars), the suburban real estate — in the development and evaluation of bank sector. By 2023, the functionality of commercial and residential real estate for government entities and developers will be expanded, and a module for the bidding / procurement segment will have been developed.
In 10 years, technologies based on artificial intelligence will increase GDP by 11.3% and the bulk of such developments will be in the real estate sector. Since its inception, the company’s priority has been to find innovative solutions for the real estate market, and we offer really working tools that connect digital and development. Contrary to expectations of a “depression” in the industry due to the pandemic, on the contrary, new niches are being created to automate all stages of the real estate life cycle.
The primary task of our team is to help as many banking structures, developers, brokers, insurance agencies as possible, to simplify the assessment procedure and to automate real estate transactions to optimize business processes and increase profits.
Dmitry Tsyplakov, CPO of FinCase.
