These real estate tech startups will make you feel at home

Of late, the real estate industry has been ad0pting cutting-edge technologies such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and others. It is thus not surprising to see the sector witnessing a new breed of Real-Tech startups that are changing age-old industry practices.

The Indian real estate sector is one of the largest contributors to the country’s GDP. It is considered to be the second-largest employer, providing livelihood to a whopping 52 million people and contributing to nearly five to six percent of GDP to the Indian economy.

Of late, the industry has been ad0pting cutting-edge technologies to change age-old industry practices.

Here we list ten Real-Tech startups that one can look at while moving into a new house:

NestAway 

Founded in 2015, NestAway is a rental solution that caters to the needs of individuals looking for affordable rental housing in the top 10 cities in India. It uses predictive analysis, and Artificial Intelligence to provide solutions to its customers.

With the acquisition of Zenify in May last year, the company also ventured into the rental business for families. The startup recently raised close to $51 million (Rs 330 crore) in Series D funding from global investment bank Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT Fund, a joint venture between Ratan Tata’s RNT Associates and the University of California, Schroder Adveq and its existing investors - IDG India and Tiger Global.

At present, the company claims to cater to over 35,000 tenants and 16,000 owners, including over 7,000 families in Bengaluru, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Noida, Mumbai and Pune.

NoBroker

Are you dreading to pay a month’s commission to your broker for renting a house? Here is NoBroker, a Bengaluru-based real estate search platform that eliminates brokers while connecting flat owners/landlords and tenants. It is a customer-to-customer property portal that uses advanced technologies like Machine Learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence to sort, select and list properties better. It gathers data and extracts listing information from images of ‘to let’ signs.

Founded in 2014, the company started as a rental platform. It has now forayed into brokerage-free buy-and-sell properties as well. The company verifies each listing to make sure they are owners and not middlemen.

ZiffyHomes

Gurugram-based ZiffyHomes offers furnished rooms for bachelors who cannot afford to rent a house and do not prefer to stay as a paying guest. The firm claims that its USP is combining technology with on-the-ground operations.

Recently, the marketplace startup announced that it acquired Nivaasa, a Gurugram-based home rental platform, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will help ZiffyHomes expand in the premium apartments segment across India.

QuikrHomes

Quikr is one of the few classifieds portals to focus on managed homes. Under the homes segment, Quikr operates three acquired companies including real estate portals CommonFloor and Realty Compass, and managed home rental startup Grabhouse.

As per a media report in January this year, Quikr’s largest vertical was the homes category, which accounted for 30 percent of the company’s total revenue.

Zocalo

Zocalo is a Mexican term for a public square. Founded by Uday Lakkar, an IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus, and Amber Sajid, Zocalo is a broker-free platform that offers listings of PGs, hostel, shared and rental apartment accommodations.

The company also helps customers to move into new houses by tying-up with movers and packers. Recently, the brokerage-free hostel and apartment rental listing platform secured funding of Rs 1.4 crore from Xander Group – a global real estate and investment firm.

Ghar 360

Founded by Ajesh Joy and Sanju Thomas, Ghar360 is a cloud-based 3D augmented reality platform. Customers can experience a virtual walk through of a house with the digital platform even before it is constructed.

Zipgrid

Mumbai-based Zipgrid, co-founded by Jaydip Popat and Kunal Gupta has operations in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The firm provides technology and knowledge services to housing and commercial communities. Its range of services include accounting and finance, compliance and control management solutions. Zipgrid community solutions aims to optimise costs through its commerce solutions, and is now looking to expand its footprint and invest in strengthening technology and operations.

Last year, it raised $500,000 (Rs 3.25 crore) in a pre-Series A round from property consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle and existing investor 1Crowd, a crowdfunding platform.

Homigo

Bengaluru-based Homigo is a platform that provides working professionals fully-furnished homes on a sharing basis. It was started in July 2015 by three IIT Kanpur graduates – Nikunj Batheja, Jatin Mitruka and Aakash Verma.

CoLive

This Bengaluru-based startup, which offers shared living spaces, raised Rs 12 crore in funding led by the private investment arm of SAR Group Family Office in February this year. Currently, CoLive operates 75 properties in Bengaluru, with 3,000 beds in its inventory.

StayAbode

Bengaluru-based startup StayAbode, that builds co-living spaces, raised an undisclosed amount in funding last year from Incubate Fund and a group of real estate investors. The firm builds co-living spaces for the rental residential real estate market. The startup was founded by Christ University alumni Viral Chhajer and Devashish Dalmiya, and VIT alumnus Varun Bhalla in May 2016.