Proptechaweek is taking the summer off, we’ll be back in September, but not without giving you a recap of some of the best Proptech ideas we wrote about this year!
5. BIOS Lighting
We occasionally used a monthly theme-based startup selection process, and specifically, the “Better living through Proptech”-month turned out pretty strong. It was also a testament to how versatile Proptech can be: From battling noise pollution to improving fitness and improving the air you breathe. The positive impact the technology can have, using artificial light to boost wellbeing and battle depression, without any effort involved from the people whose life is being improved, made us choose BIOS Lighting to represent the wellbeing series in the top 5.
4. Speckle
A thing we noticed while investigating interesting Proptech companies is how fragmented a lot of the data en technology related to real estate really is. This fragmentation leads to innovative companies trying to combine data or technologies, making huge businesses out of it. Speckle has the ambitious mission to add interoperability between different CAD en BIM applications like Revit, Rhino, and AutoCAD. A daunting task that, if successful, could lead to closer collaboration between different disciplines and change the traditional way of working. Check out the article to read how they use open source and a git-like version control system to make this a reality.
3. Qarnot
We featured some interesting ways to heat your home this year, but none were quite so fascinating as the one Niels introduced to the Proptechaweek readers. Guided by the age-old adage: one person's waste is another man's treasure, Qarnot developed a heater that’s also a cloud-based computing system. The heat of intensive computations, instead of lost, is now used to heat your home. As simple as the idea is brilliant, you reduce both CO2 emissions and costs. What’s even more, if you click through to the article, you can witness that their devices even look good while doing it!
2. Branch
What if we never end up going back to the office? Can spontaneous, informal interactions happen online? A bunch of startups is betting that it can and that it will. Branch is one of the leaders in the virtual office space, they allow you to be present in the same virtual environment with your colleagues, represented by an avatar. This sounds pretty plain until you realize that, using the integrated video-conferencing tools, you initiate a video call with the people nearby. They’ve built the technology to completely mimic office life in the virtual world. What if the best invention of 2020 in real estate isn’t even real?
1. FBR
Most building structures are still constructed the same way they were two hundred years ago. To quote William Gibson: The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed. In particular, real estate is lagging in applying new technologies to the construction process. FBR, or Fastbrick Robotics, is trying to get robotics used in the factory hall to the construction yard. They try to reinvent the bricklaying process using unmanned robotic technology. FBR is our number one pick because bringing the same productivity gains modern manufacturing has made to the housing market has the potential to make affordable living accessible to millions of people.
That’s it for me, see you in September!