Techstars is a global platform that provides investment and innovation. Through the Techstars Worldwide Entrepreneur Network, founders and their teams connect with other entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporate partners who will help their companies grow. Techstars operates four divisions: Techstars Mentorship-Driven Accelerator Program supercharges success and Techstars Startup Programs inspire, educate, and connect entrepreneurs. Techstars Venture Capital Fund invests in innovative and disruptive companies. Techstars Corporate Innovation Partnerships help brands create products and services. Techstars' accelerator portfolio includes more than 1,000 companies with a market cap of $8.1 billion.

Techstars

M25 is a Chicago-based Midwest-focused venture capital firm run by Victor Gutwein and Mike Asem. Since the firm's inception in 2015, M25 has invested in 90+ early-stage tech startups in over 24 cities across 11 states in the Midwest. M25's objective, analytical model and collaborative, forward-thinking approach creates a large portfolio spanning several industries across the entire region, allowing them to establish M25 as a key node in Midwest startup ecosystem.

Allos Ventures invests in early-stage B2B software and business services companies in the Midwest. The firm invests in businesses and partners with entrepreneurs to help these companies accelerate growth and build value. Allos Ventures was formed in early 2010 and is based in Carmel, Indiana, United States.

Allos Ventures

Matchstick Ventures supports the creation and growth of early-stage technology companies in rapidly growing yet underserved startup ecosystems. The firm prefers to invest in seed-stage, early-stage, and later-stage companies. The firm seeks to invest in the business products, business services, information technology, and TMT sectors.

Matchstick Ventures

MATH Venture Partners is an early to middle-stage fund managed by a seasoned team of hands-on investors and operators. We look for entrepreneurial teams that have customer acquisition as part of their core DNA. It is this maniacal focus, deep appreciation for process and exceptional talent that makes them stand out. MATH forms deep and personal partnerships with entrepreneurs. We have built and scaled many large companies to successful exits. Both of our Managing Directors are serial entrepreneurs and teachers at heart. We love to partner with coachable founding teams that strive to constantly improve. Let's build something great together.

MATH Venture Partners

FJ Labs is a stage-agnostic investment firm that focuses on marketplaces and consumer-facing startups. Their investments are seed and series A. The investment range of the company is $50,000 to $5,000,000. It invests in Alibaba Group, Beepi, BrightRoll, Betterment, Adore Me, and Earnest.

FJ Labs

Pareto Holdings is an early-stage investment vehicle founded by Jon Oringer and Edward Lando. We execute on dozens of investments per month and are often the first to back exceptional entrepreneurs. We are industry and geography agnostic, and specialize in pre-seeding companies. We’ve made 500+ investments to date. Unlike others, we only invest our own money with a small and mighty team around the world.

Pareto Holdings

Improovy

Improovy is a digitally-native managed marketplace that connects homeowners to vetted painting contractors and controls the entire end-to-end experience.

Improovy is a marketplace that connects homeowners with painting professionals and contractors. The platform helps homeowners find, hire, and work with painting experts. It helps streamline the home painting process between contractors and homeowners, covering a range of painting and home maintenance jobs such as interior painting, exterior painting, drywall repairs, trim installation, and wood replacement.

Property owners and real estate companies are able to handle larger portfolios while offering faster and cheaper services.

Residential PropTech

Improovy Raises $2.79 Million to Streamline Home Improvement Service Delivery

Improovy is a marketplace that connects homeowners with painting professionals and contractors. The platform helps homeowners find, hire, and work with painting experts. It helps streamline the home painting process between contractors and homeowners, covering a range of painting and home maintenance jobs such as interior painting, exterior painting, drywall repairs, trim installation, and wood replacement.As of June 2022, Improovy offered painting and home improvement services in nine cities across Texas, Michigan, Illinois, Arizona, and Missouri.

Houzz is a platform connecting homeowners with vendors such as home improvement professionals, interior designers, and others. The platform gives opportunities to home improvement professionals to showcase their work and provide contact information so they can be reached by homeowners in need of such services. Over time, the company has also established an e-commerce marketplace for selling goods, such as furniture and others.&nbsp;In July 2024, the company upgraded its Houzz Pro 3D Floor Plan Tool to include multi-floor capabilities, allowing professionals to design and visualize multi-story buildings within the platform. This enhancement, part of the Houzz Pro suite, aimed to improve collaboration and communication between professionals and clients by offering a more comprehensive view of entire homes or multi-level commercial spaces. It also introduced AutoMate, a set of AI-powered tools integrated into Houzz Pro, designed to enhance efficiency for building, remodeling, and design professionals. Utilizing Houzz Vision AI technologies and GenAI models, AutoMate aimed to streamline workflows and improve productivity within the home improvement industry. Pricing details for this new feature were not disclosed.The company’s core business is to offer subscription plans to contractors and designers so they can list their services. The company offers its subscription in three different tiers: Starter, Essential, and Pro, priced at USD 85, USD 129, and USD 199 per month, respectively, excluding its Advertising package which costs USD 499 per month.Houzz was impacted negatively by the Covid-19 pandemic and had to lay off 155 employees (10% of the total) in April 2020. However, that was not the first layoff as it also let go of around 180 employees in January 2019 when the company stated that it was preparing for its IPO. The IPO is expected to be finalized in early 2022.In December 2021, Houzz acquired an Australian-based SaaS platform providing home construction planning and professional estimation tools through ConX. ConX’s tools were to be built into the end-to-end Houzz Pro offering to serve construction contractors better through the Houzz platform. It, therefore, allowed users of the Houzz platform to streamline the estimation process and efficiently manage workflow when undertaking home improvement projects.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsThe company had over 65 million monthly as of August 2022.In July 2024, the company partnered with GreenSky, a financial technology company, to provide home improvement financing options. The partnership integrated GreenSky's home improvement loans into Houzz Pro's business and marketing management software. This collaboration aimed to empower builders and remodelers by providing them access to financing options, potentially helping them close more business deals.

Houzz

<div>
 
 DocuSign offers eSignature tools to facilitate the management of electronic agreements. These tools enable users to upload and send documents that require signatures, with other features such as checking the status, sending reminders, and storing documents online. The company offers its services to many sectors, including real estate, healthcare and insurance.&nbsp;
 
 
 For the real estate sector, DocuSign automates many transaction processes by providing electronic signing of documents, online notarizations, and a&nbsp; collaboration workspace for the relevant parties (buyers, sellers, agents, etc.). DocuSign claims it helps the property sector reduce paper costs and speeds up the process, while reporting that around 82% of documents sent through its platform get signed within a day.&nbsp;
 
 
 DocuSign has a specific plan for real estate purposes. The plan comes in three different tiers: Real Estate Starter, Real Estate, and Realtors, priced at USD 15, USD 45, and USD 35 per month, respectively.
 
 
 In May 2024, DocuSign 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/29171">
 announced its agreement to acquire
 </a>
 Lexion, a contract management platform, for USD 165 million in cash, subject to customary adjustments. Through this acquisition, DocuSign planned to leverage Lexion&rsquo;s AI-based contract management technology and expertise to strengthen its position in the Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) space and enhance DocuSign&rsquo;s IAM platform capabilities.
 
 
 DocuSign went public in 2018 and was valued at around USD 4.4 billion at the time of its listing.
 
 
 For FY2024, DocuSign reported total revenue of USD 2.8 billion (up 10% YoY), compared to a total revenue of USD 2.5 billion recorded for FY2023. The company reported a non-GAAP net income of USD 622.9 million for FY2023, compared to a non-GAAP net income of USD 418.9 million recorded a year ago.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 As of January 2024, the company had over 1 billion worldwide users since 2003 and over 1.5 million paying customers.
 
</div>

DocuSign

HomeLight initially started as an agent matching platform for home buyers and sellers, but has expanded its product portfolio to provide title and escrow, home estimation, home loans, and other services.For the agent matching service, buyers and sellers answer online questionnaires to determine their specific needs. The platform then uses an algorithm to crunch historical transaction data to find the most suitable agents in its database, which included over 30,000 agents as of July 2024. The platform typically lists up to three agents for buyers/sellers to select from and offers a consultation service to refine the selection further and ensure clients get the most suitable agents.HomeLight also provides a trade-in service, where it will guarantee to pay a certain price for the client’s current home. This way, clients do not need to worry about home sale contingency (a new home transaction is contingent on the sale of an existing home) when they want to purchase a new home. In addition, clients will get additional cash (less any selling-related costs and trade-in fees) if HomeLight can sell their old homes in the market for more than the guaranteed prices (i.e., clients can get the full market value).The platform is available for free to buyers and sellers, but the agent matching service charges a standard referral fee of 25% to the gross commission of agents when they get selected. The platform stated that its recommendations are transparent and based solely on the agents’ performance metrics. In August 2020, HomeLight acquired a transaction management tool, Disclosures.io, that enables real estate professionals to manage transactions as well as market and sell homes in one place. In June 2022, HomeLight acquired Accept, a property financing platform, for an undisclosed amount. Through the acquisition, HomeLight leveraged Accept’s tech-based mortgage solution to offer clients a contingency-free transaction and provide homebuyers with pre-qualified mortgages to facilitate cash offers.The company expected its revenue to exceed USD 300 million in 2021, triple that of 2020. HomeLight’s Cash Offer, the service that allows homebuyers to make upfront cash offers through its certified agents, grew by 500% YoY in transaction volume and achieved USD 3 billion in combined referred transaction value with Accept.Inc in Q1 2022.Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2021, the company had served over one million customers.

HomeLight

<div>
 
 Porch operates a home services platform. In the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment, Porch provides an online marketplace that connects homeowners with home improvement professionals (e.g. appliance repair, electricians, plumbers, etc.). The company states that it works with two out of every three homebuyers in the US every month. The company also offers home moving and handyman services, as well as home and auto insurance. It&nbsp;
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25523">
 launched RynohVerifi
 </a>
 , a fraud warning tool aimed to offer fraud protection for title and escrow companies in January 2024.
 
 
 In the business-to-business (B2B) segment, the company provides home inspection software and home moving software for home service companies. Porch has formed partnerships with many leading companies across a number of verticals, including real estate companies, home inspection companies, retail companies, home warranty companies, and others.
 
 
 Although the company&rsquo;s core focus has been home improvement and repair services, Porch has also made notable acquisitions to branch out into new segments. In January 2021, the company acquired Homeowners of America (home insurance provider) for USD 100 million, V12 Data (omnichannel marketing data solution provider) for USD 22 million, and Palm-Tech (home-inspection software company) and iRoofing (roofing app for contractors) for undisclosed amounts.
 
 
 In July 2020, Porch announced a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), PropTech Acquisition Corporation, through which the company would go public. The merger was finalized in December 2020, and the company began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker &lsquo;PRCH&rsquo;, raising a total of more than USD 322 million at a valuation of over USD 1 billion.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 For FY2023, Porch reported 56% YoY growth in total revenue to USD 430.3 million, compared to USD 275.9 million recorded in FY2022. Adjusted EBITDA loss for FY2023 amounted to USD 44.5 million (translating to an adjusted EBITDA margin of -10%), compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of USD 49.6 million recorded a year ago (translating to an adjusted EBITDA margin of -18%).
 
</div>

Porch

​​Mynd operates a platform for individual investors (i.e individual landlords) of Single Family Rental (SFR) properties that provides full-service property management (mostly to individual owners) using digital leasing with 3D tours, self-showings, tenant screening, tenant and owner portals, financial reporting, electronic rent collection, repairs and maintenance, a dedicated portfolio manager, and 24/7 emergency support.The company claims the platform has reduced leasing times and generated high-quality tenants with low delinquency for its users. One advantage of using Mynd is that the company provides a guarantee of up to USD 5,000 when 1) tenants fail to pay rent, 2) damage to the properties beyond the normal wear and tear, and 3) tenants cannot pay and get evicted. The company has different subscription fees for various cities. The company’s pricing for its full service without guarantees ranges from USD 69 - 99 per month, while its prices range between USD 99 - 199 per month with the inclusion of guarantees.As of August 2024, the company managed over 18,000 homes and USD 6 billion worth of assets under management, spanning over 27 markets across Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.In June 2024, Mynd <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/30124">merged with</a> <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/354173">Roofstock</a>, a real estate investment platform focused on SFRs, to offer users integrated property investment and management offerings. Through this merger, Mynd planned to provide real estate investors with an integrated investment and rental management platform, offer analytical insights on SFRs, and support buying and selling decisions.

Mynd

Tools for automating property lease management workflow processes. Some startups handle the entire leasing process while others only handle part of the process (e.g., rent collection). Leasing tools for agents are included here.

These tools automate the property appraisal process. Appraisals are generally required by lenders before originating mortgages to buyers.

Tools for title and escrow, as well as transaction management;
1) Title and Escrow: These platforms provide settlement and closing services. They cover a variety of tools, such as, title search and examination, automated generation of closing disclosure, online notarization, automated fund disbursements using electronic cheques, etc. 
2) Transaction Management: These platforms generally enable various users (agents, buyers, sellers) to manage real estate transactions more efficiently. They bring all users and tools together onto a single platform to complete tasks like electronic signatures, seller disclosure forms, etc.

These tools essentially help agents in buying and selling activities, such as generating and managing leads, getting referrals, and searching for suitable homes for clients.

These platforms handle activities related to home maintenance and improvements. They either provide the services themselves or simply connect clients to vendors.

Companies that offer tools that allow renters or buyers to view homes without visiting the sites.

Companies that offer an online platform to match buyers and sellers of residential real estate properties.

Allows real estate agents to create 3D virtual tours for properties

Uses AI/ML to support property related tasks such as rental payments and spatial data capturing

Uses GenAI to help customers navigate listings, enhance marketing content, and automate communications

Transaction closing tools that use the blockchain to facilitate title and escrow services

Improovy

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