What a Blueprint week it was, once again. Jesse Wright and I were beyond thrilled to connect with so many GEMs in person. Truly, a magical week. And, no surprise, our annual Korean BBQ dinner was the highlight of the trip.

Fundraising came up many, many times in Vegas last week—which makes sense given Blueprint's audience was built by being the one place proptech VCs show up at scale. I know fundraising is a grueling process. Beyond fundraising office hours, peer practice pitches, and visibility to angels/VCs, we've been working on ❇️a Fundraising center❇️ to centralize information and resources related to raising capital. If you're raising capital, and want to understand how the GEM ecosystem can be helpful, please review our fundraising page here.

Without further ado, on to regular scheduled programming below...

— Drew Meyers

TRANSMISSION RECAPS
Last week, Joe Dahleen argues that mortgage may be looking at factory-built housing wrong--the opportunity is larger than designing a modular or manufactured-home loan. This week, Jonathan Wasserstrum explores residential assisted living and argues that the cheapest new supply in America may already be sitting on a cul-de-sac.

GEM EVENTS
We have upcoming events in NYC, Seattle, San Francisco, and Dallas, with more being planned.

• Sign up for GEM Primer, which gives you access to our app to view all upcoming GEM events.

NEW GEM MEMBERS

• Ted Mucellin from Auction.com
• Paul Favorov from HelloPackage
• Alyssa Govindan from Shortlist

MEMBER NEWS

• Bill Fowler launched Phantom Power.
• Ocusell partnered with MoreMLS, All Jersey MLS, and Staten Island MLS to expand its presence in the New York Metro area with another 30,000+ real estate agents. — Hayden Rieveschl
• Bilt partnered with Collective Residential and acquired Livly's smart-building technology platform. — Jonathan Lawless
• Morgan Stanley announced the 2026 global cohort of its Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures (MSISV), which includes Viva Benefits. — Michael Barnes
• blok is responsible for the Compass Global Division website. — Chase Knowles
• Docusign Founder Court Lorenzini joined Equity Angels. — Katherine Winston
• Anyprop goes live. — Lee Lin and Lawrence Zhou
• NFX decided to self-fund its investments. — Pete Flint
• Scaffold raised a $15 million seed led by Navitas. — Ben Johnson
• Resident partnered with Empire State Realty Trust. — Brian Mommsen
• PLACE acquired Maxwell. — Ben Kinney, Kristen Meyer, Steve Berneman, and Bryan Bowles
• Maverix added Kyle Hunter as a strategic advisor. — Jeff Kennedy
• Rechat websites are live. — Shayan Hamidi

As always, links surrounded by the ❇️ indicate exclusive GEM content. If you would like to have access to all links or attend our curated gatherings, please consider GEM membership.

BIZ INTEL

PROPTECH INDEX WEEKLY - AS OF 9/25/2026
Consisting of 26 stocks, the GEM Proptech Index had a combined market cap of $225.571B, a decrease of 3.87% from the previous week.

CONSTRUCTION

AIRBNB TO THE RESCUE
By: Drew Meyers

The Airbnb Housing Accelerator is an initiative launched by Airbnb to address housing shortages by facilitating the construction of new homes. Through this program, Airbnb has committed an initial $250 million toward "last-dollar" financing for construction-ready, multi-family housing projects that have cleared regulatory hurdles. The goal is to unlock more than $5 billion in capital investments over a ten-year period. Airbnb's first investment is a $6.4 million contribution to the St. John redevelopment project in Austin to fund 201 affordable housing units. Developers in the United States with multi-family projects of 100 or more units can submit their projects to Airbnb for potential funding consideration.

In addition to direct capital investments, the Housing Accelerator includes components focused on policy advocacy, data tracking, and construction innovation. Airbnb is partnering with organizations such as the Florida Housing Coalition, AURA, and the Citizens' Housing and Planning Association to support pro-housing legislative reforms that include updated zoning laws, reduced impact fees, and simplified permitting processes. The company is also creating the Airbnb City Index, designed to rank global cities based on their housing policies and production outcomes. Finally, the initiative features the $5 Million Airbnb Housing Innovation Prize, which will distribute five $1 million awards to organizations or companies developing technologies designed to make home construction faster and less expensive.

This news came out of nowhere, but is the most positive story for housing supply we've seen in a long time. Is the intent of the initiative for PR and lobbying benefit? A political strategy? Sure. That said, we're all sick of lawsuits, and I'd love to see Compass, MRED, and other residential players in love with lawyers to invest dollars in bringing supply online rather than padding lawyers bank accounts.

PS: Maybe that whole "Zillbnb" idea isn't as far-fetched as originally thought.

OUT OF THE BOX

META VR GLASSES ARE COMING
By: Drew Meyers

Vision Pro was announced in 2023. Honestly, even though I've seen a few people use them on flights, I haven't heard much about the devices since. Coming Spring 2027 for $1,299, Meta VR Glasses are next in line with grand aspirations to deliver virtual reality's holy grail. Watch the demonstration:

While having a personal theatre and next generation gaming will be primary selling points until there is critical mass of adoption, the most impressive feature was...