Investor Confidence in Proptech Has Never Been Higher Despite COVID
By Nicholas Rizzi March 11, 2021 3:56 pm
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Investor confidence in proptech has never been higher, even as the coronavirus pandemic emptied offices around the world and dried up proptech funding, a new report found.
MetaProp biannual Global Proptech Confidence Index, which tracks the state of the market, found that investor’s confidence in proptech at the end of 2020 hit 9.2 out of 10, up from its previous high of 8.8 in mid-2019.
The majority of investors in the study, 94 percent, said they think the pandemic will further accelerate the adoption of proptech in the industry, and 59 percent expect to make more investments into startups this year, up from 33 percent who said they would in the middle of 2020.
“As we predicted earlier last year, the proptech sector continued its rapid growth and maturation, with a flurry of record-setting activity and industry sentiment soaring to new heights,” Aaron Block, co-founder and managing partner at MetaProp, said in a statement. “We are excited as we anticipate this trend will continue in 2021, with COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out faster than expected and a more stable political climate.”
And it’s not just investors feeling positive about proptech. Startup founders also hit their highest confidence level since MetaProp started tracking it in 2016, at 7.7 out of 10.
While proptech investments fell by 25 percent at the end of 2020, 39 percent of startups surveyed by MetaProp expect it to be easier to obtain funding in 2021, an increase from the all-time low of 12 percent in the middle of 2020.
Even as COVID-19 forced workers to ditch offices for their homes and drove down office leasing around New York City, it accelerated owners’ use of proptech as they scrambled to make sure properties are safe for when tenants return.
Mark Rosenthal, chief revenue officer of tenant experience software platform HqO, previously said on a Commercial Observer panel that he braced for the worst when COVID-19 hit, but his platform actually grew by 30 million square feet as of April 2020.
And, earlier this week, VTS acquired fellow proptech startup Rise Buildings, which provides an app to control operations and tenant experience in properties, for around $100 million.
