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Elm Street Technologies aims for Canada with latest acquisitions

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The real estate industry roll-up continues as Greensboro, North Carolina-based Elm Street Technologies announced in a press release the joint acquisition of two related Toronto companies, CRM IXACT Contact and sister marketing company Morris Real Estate Marketing Group (Morris Marketing).

The two firms’ collective features will bolster Elm Street’s Elevate platform, an omnichannel, enterprise-level real estate operations and marketing software product.

The deal’s financial figures were not disclosed. The deal is expected to build Elm Street’s brand in new Canadian markets.

These companies are Elm Street’s third and fourth acquisitions of 2021, respectively, after securing a capital infusion in 2020 from Aquiline Capital Partners, a private equity firm with offices in New York City and London.

While not as well-known in the lower 48, Morris Marketing supports a significant client base in Ontario, according to Prem Luthra, Elm Street president and CEO.

“Combine that with the outstanding IXACT product offering and its placement within the Elm Street Technology product suite, we couldn’t be more excited to see the future impact of our combined initiatives,” Luthra said in the press release.

Elevate, Elm Street’s flagship software, provides customers with an array of tools to augment marketing and support day-to-day business, ranging from IDX websites and email marketing to recruiting and brokerage management systems. It’s used by tens of thousands of agents across the U.S. and Canada, according to the company.

Elm Street’s core growth tactic is acquisition, now having absorbed 10 companies since inception, Luthra said.

“We are thrilled to align our company with Elm Street Technology,” Allan Goldstein, president and CEO of Morris Marketing and IXACT, said in the press release. “Our collective North American presence will allow rapid product and service expansion across our combined clients, providing the real estate sector with a truly intuitive, seamless user-experience.”

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems continue to attract well-funded technology suitors, especially those that offer response automation features and lead generation tools. Primarily though, CRMs often come with an established user base found in both multiple listing service agreements and direct lines of business.

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Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.