New proptech products changing the industry

Online retail marketplace eLocations is looking to revolutionise the way retailers find properties. With 77,075 stores registered globally, founder and chief executive Marc-Christian Riebe established the Geneva-based platform in 2016, and it now has 10,000 registered users worldwide. Riebe’s background is in retail. He founded The Location Group agency in 2005 and has worked with luxury brands on a global scale, including LVMH and Kering, as well as restaurant chains. He worked previously at EY on its M&A team. How does it work? Riebe claims that unlike other retail proptech innovators that look to disrupt the agency world, eLocations wants to work with it. The platform is an online map-based database that offers retailers, landlords, and brokers information about retailer locations on an interface similar to a Goad map. The map shows where retailers are located on the street and their address, as well as where they have requirements. It shows other nearby retailers, as well as the property’s size, footfall and former tenants. The maps also provide photos of the streets and the available units, which is useful for the parts of China in which it operates where Google Street View is not operational. The database is updated constantly to show the new retailers added to an area. Riebe says: “We connect local brokers with international brands such as H&M and Zara, which are opening up to 250 new shops each year. Not all brokers in smaller cities know the details of the expansion plans, so we show the brands where there are available properties and opportunities and connect them with the brokers of those properties. “We know exactly where brands like Apple, Prada or Zara are looking for new locations. And the uniqueness of the model is that it is free, which is why the website is visited so regularly.” Who is it for? Brokers can register their properties online for free to a wide audience of retailers. The user make-up is split almost 50/50 between retailers and brokers. Riebe says: “If you are a retailer, there is no other website where you can find all available properties in one platform, so it makes it much easier for the brand to have an overview. “If you’re a broker, you might be making 100 calls a day to find the right tenant or buyer for your property, but if we give brokers the leads, then they have to make only 10 calls.” If a deal comes off the back of an eLocations connection, it takes 10% of the broker’s fee. Otherwise, it is free to use. Retailers operate best in close proximity to other retailers, so being able to work out the location of other brands quickly helps them to make better decisions. “You always see Gucci or Prada within a 200m radius of a Louis Vuitton and it is the same with young fashion brands H&M and Zara – they always want to be close to each other,” Riebe says. As well as brokers, retailers, and landlords, the service has also become popular with planning departments. Meet the latest Metaprop accelerator class from Columbia University Doorport, a modular video entry system that turns any smartphone into your flat’s intercom and smart key Hoozip, software platform for real estate investors Irene, debt-free home equity for seniors LocateAI, software and artificial intelligence enabling smart real estate transactions for the retail sector OnsiteIQ, tech-enabled visual documentation and safety inspection services for the construction industry Travtus, the first AI multifamily property management and operations software Wesmartpark, technology that turns parking spaces into smart spaces Dashflow: launch of the quarter Proptech app Dashflow uses artificial intelligence to streamline real estate investment appraisals. It replaces spreadsheet modelling and rigid software solutions with a mobile app. The iOS-based app from Intellect Automation delivers appraisals by responding instantly to changed cashflow parameters of any given property investment scenario. The office investment version of the app is already being used by clients including M&G Real Estate, Delancey and Colliers International. Individual annual licences cost £125 per month.