The National Association of Realtors has announced the seven startups that will make up the 2015 class of its tech accelerator program, REach.
This class, REach’s third, was chosen from a pool of hundreds of applicants — more than double the number of firms that applied to the program last year, according to NAR’s investment wing, Second Century Ventures LLC, which runs the program.
Like the 15 startups in the two classes before this one, this REach group features early-stage startups with a focus in real estate and related industries. They’ll have access to over 150 advisers and mentors and participate in an eight-month program designed to give them an entrée into the industry that kicks off this week.
The companies in REach’s 2015 class are:
- Asset Avenue (Los Angeles) is an online peer-to-peer lending platform for the commercial real estate industry. It provides borrowers and brokers with quick and reliable access to competitively priced loans financed by accredited and institutional investors who lend up to $25 million for any single property.
- BoostUp (Detroit) helps people save for a down payment on their next car or home by offering a dollar-for-dollar match on their savings from brand partners, family and friends.
- Guard Llama (Chicago) is a mobile personal security system that expedites the 911 dispatching process when dialing 911 is not possible.
- Loop & Tie (Austin, Texas, and New York City) simplifies personalized gifting for businesses to help promote brands, win business and build goodwill.
- NotaryCam (Newport Beach, California) provides companies and individuals with the ability to have documents notarized online from anywhere in the world, at any time, by a network of certified, licensed notaries.
- Pro.com (Seattle) is a home services marketplace that helps homeowners price out projects and matches them with a certified “pro” in their area who can get the job done.
- TermScout (Denver) is an intelligence application for business-to-business sales professionals.
Collectively, the seven firms in the class have raised over $35 million in cash with a collective valuation of over $125 million, according to Second Century Ventures.
“We are looking forward to introducing the new class to NAR’s 1 million members while providing the companies with access to experts and influencers in the real estate, insurance, mortgage and financial services industries,” said NAR CEO Dale Stinton in a statement.
Unlike other incubator programs, REach is not focused on helping participating firms raise money. Instead, it’s aimed at helping companies grow revenue, by tweaking their products to best fit the real estate industry, and by providing networking channels to get them face to face with decision-makers, according to the program’s managing director, Constance Freedman.
The program is not free for participating startups, however. They pay a marketing fee to Second Century Ventures that totals up to $25,000, and hand over equity stakes of between 2 and 5 percent in order to participate.
Some firms have seen success coming out of the program. The 15 startups that have graduated from the incubator have raised over $34 million collectively either during the program or since completing it, according to Second Century Ventures.
One of last year’s participants, predictive analytics firm SmartZip Analytics, raised $12 million while in the program.
Second Century Ventures invested an unnamed amount of cash in another inaugural class member, Planwise, in exchange for a larger ownership stake.
