COVID-19 is going away very slowly, which is putting pressure on the digitization of residential sales. Solutions that enable digital signatures, online viewings and even online selling are becoming necessary tools for residential developers, says Jakub Licak, Business Development Manager at CEE-based proptech Realpad, who’s responsible for the company's international expansion in Romania and Bulgaria. He talked to Property Forum about his experiences on the Romanian market and discussed Realpad’s expansion strategy.

Despite the difficulties caused by COVID-19, the year 2020 was a turning point, in a positive sense, for most Czech Proptech companies. as the pandemic situation created strong pressure to automate and digitize processes using modern technologies. These technologies include machine reading, artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things. Many companies have expanded to foreign markets, where Czech solutions for residential and commercial development are receiving positive responses. The Czech-Slovak Association of PropTech Companies has received feedback from 5 progressive companies.

Property Forum is excited to announce that we will be participating as a Channel Partner at the second edition Unissu’s upcoming digital event RE:Connect and are now looking for proptechs and real estate professional interested in the future of real estate to join us as conference participants for free.

Realpad is a European provider of software that helps more than 60 residential developers provide better customer service. Recently, in cooperation with Slovak developer Corwin, Realpad completed a pilot project for the digitisation of the entire apartment handover process. The solution has been quickly adopted by more customers in other European markets.

Property Forum is excited to announce that we will be participating as a Channel Partner at Unissu’s upcoming digital event RE:Connect and are now looking for proptechs and real estate professional interested in the future of real estate to join us as conference participants for free.

In the context of the digital transformation growth, Alexandru Boghiu and Radu Gogoașă announce the launch of The Mavers, a digital & tech startup on the real estate market, with an investment exceeding €300,000.

Fifth Wall, the largest venture capital firm focused on real estate technology, has partnered with BNP Paribas Real Estate to launch its business in Europe with the Fifth Wall Real Estate Technology European Fund, its first European proptech fund. The California-based company founded in 2016 has over $1.2 billion under management, raised from industry stakeholders via several funds.

spaceOS, a company offering a global operating system for safe, flexible and human-centric workspaces, has announced a pilot deal with Hitachi, Ltd. The agreement will see Hitachi integrate its platform into spaceOS’ workspace management app, to provide its commercial real estate clients in Japan with a complete, integrated smart building ecosystem.

Prologis has launched its Essentials Marketplace for Europe, a procurement tool that saves customers time when setting up, expanding or upgrading their operations. This online platform offers a raft of key warehouse interior products and fully managed instalment processes.

spaceOS has announced a new capital raise totalling €2.5 million. The latest funding comes after Austrian commercial real estate group Immofinanz took a €2 million stake in spaceOS, further strengthening the firms’ partnership, following a deal in December to roll-out the spaceOS platform across the group’s entire portfolio. Existing investors BeyondBuild also contributed an additional €0.5 million to this funding round.