PropTech Retrospect: VC funds continue to flow into rental service tech

News came out yesterday that the Property Management market size is projected to grow from $3.62 billion in 2021 to $6.16 billion in 2028, according to a recent report by Fortune Business Insights. That’s almost a complete 2x in size for the market, which is impressive enough.

When you realize the other verticals that feed into the overarching property market (construction, real estate search, agent services, etc.), it really makes you wonder just how much activity we will continue to see in the coming months and years.

With so much proptech generating news every day, it’s easy to lose track of all the exciting deals, technologies and startups that are popping up and changing the way real estate and property is handled.

As a result, I’ll be starting an end-of-the month roundup of all the biggest stories in the proptech world. While I can’t include every story that made waves this month, I’ll do my best to include most of the important news for the month, broken down by category, with some notable excerpts sprinkled in.

Welcome, to the very first, PropTech Retrospect.

PropTech Funding News

Property Management

Real Estate/Property Investment

Withco raises $32m for lease-to-own platform (Feb. 1)
Lev Lending launches, providing end-to-end CRE direct lending: “The new service utilizes Lev’s existing AI and broker expertise to give clients a top-down view of the CRE financing from quote to close, specializing in permanent, non-recourse loans on single-tenant net lease (NNN) properties. During the products soft launch, Lev Lending has managed to close multiple $1 million+ loans, at three times the rate of traditional lenders.” (Feb. 8)
Republic Realm rebrands metaverse real estate branch, raises $60M round led by a16z (Feb. 10)
Ark7 to allow users to dip into IRAs for fractional property investment: “The new offering builds on the San Francisco-based startups proprietary investment strategy that allows investors to customize their portfolios by picking and choosing from vetted properties. Unlike private equity funds, Ark7 doesn’t have a required minimum investment amount. Leaning on a more inclusive business model, potential investors can buy in for as low as $5.40/share.” (Feb. 15)
Gilbert’s Bedrock lands a $430 million CMBS loan, the largest in Detroit’s history (Feb. 22, Craine’s Detroit Business)