Weekly Radar #338: Commonality Comes Through, Proptech Index Up 6.65%, Proptech's Super Bowl Moments, Stacking Revenue
In this Weekly Radar, we cover:
- A research team developed a remote sensing system that identifies building materials using aerial imagery and neural networks, with applications in urban efficiency, real estate investment, and digital twin development.
- Oculis Domes, a company focused on unique and sustainable short-term rental accommodations, is expanding its dome-shaped lodging concept with ongoing projects and crowdfunding efforts.
- Zillow and Redfin have partnered to syndicate multifamily rental listings, strategically aligning to counter CoStar’s dominance in the rental market. And reducing Redfin's costs.
- Rocket Mortgage and Homes.com aired costly Super Bowl commercials, but both ad spots lacked clarity in differentiating their services from competitors.
- NFX introduced video essays to explore stackable business models in the AI era, providing a more digestible format for founders strategizing revenue expansion.
- Rhino and Jetty merged to form the largest U.S. security deposit alternative platform, streamlining rental move-in solutions and eliminating traditional deposits.
- The GEM Proptech Index increased 6.65% from the previous week.
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Transmission Recap:
This week, Drew Meyers explored the Tesla-ification of motorhomes, with a new wave of fully electric, luxury vehicles and towables led by Lightship and Pebble coming to market. Before that, Brad Cartier pondered a way the U.S. could address urban blight and housing affordability by adopting strategies inspired by Japan's "Akiya" concept for dilapidated housing stock.
BIZ INTEL
PROPTECH INDEX WEEKLY
By: Community Relations
Consisting of 29 stocks, the GEM Proptech Index had a combined market cap of $264.52B, an increase of 6.65% from the previous week.
The index saw its highest weekly percentage gain since inception, driven by Airbnb’s strong Q4 earnings, which exceeded revenue expectations and surged their share price by 19.59%. As the portfolio's largest company, Airbnb led the rally, while ProCore also posted a notable gain, rising 15.97%. Previously, the best-performing week was November 22nd, when shares increased by 6.23%.
Full earnings recaps for Airbnb can be found ❇️here❇️ and Procore can be found ❇️here❇️.
BUILT WORLD
BUILDING MATERIALS EYE IN THE SKY
By: Logan Nagel
A research team at the University of Southern Denmark and Peking University developed a remote sensing system capable of identifying building materials from aerial imagery. Using satellite maps alongside data from Google Streetview and OpenStreetMap, the system uses neural networks to determine the composition of building roofs and walls.
While many of the immediate implications of this technology relate to municipal use, helping understand the mosaic of building efficiency across a city and identifying improvement opportunities in support of decarbonization, the applications are far-reaching. Property investors, for one, could use this technology to target their acquisition efforts or potentially gain an advantage during pricing negotiations. Alongside other in-development technologies that can identify building age through similar processes, vendors of high-efficiency components and contractors alike could use the data to inform their prospecting activities. Even farther-reaching, remote material identification could serve as a critical component for building citywide digital twins by the likes of Siemens or Hexagon. Now that’s far out!
DOMING UP THE LODGING EXPERIENCE
By: Drew Meyers
Serving as a private cocoon, Oculis Domes are the epitome of unusual lodging. Sustainable, in nature. Amenity-rich, complete with sauna, jacuzzi, hammock, and outdoor seating area with a large deck. Sleek aesthetics with a skylight for stargazing with a telescope. Purpose built for short-term rentals.