San Francisco Startup Launches Real Estate Messenger
A San Francisco-based tech startup has unveiled a professional messenger for the real estate industry. Openland is designed to streamline communication between owners, builders, investors, lenders, tenants, brokers and local government officials.
The company recently received $2.25M in funding from a group of 30 investors, including Gagarin Capital, Sinai Ventures, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Rainfall Ventures and Y Combinator.
Openland’s product addresses issues related to constant back-and-forth communication between multiple parties during multiple phases of a project, including market research, deal sourcing, financing, permitting, construction management and leasing. A recent survey from PlanGrid revealed poor communication and inaccurate data on a job site will result in $31B in wasted spending in 2018.
“In recent years, messaging apps have transformed personal and workplace communications,” Openland CEO and co-founder Yury Lifshits said in a statement. “A professional messenger for real estate has the potential to dramatically accelerate sourcing, negotiations and closing workflows.”
Openland features channels, listings and cross-organizational chats. Users join channels based on their interests and roles in the industry, post offerings/needs to channels and message each other directly to qualify opportunities and work on transactions.
“Vertical messaging platforms are taking over customer service, sales, recruiting, and community management,” Peak State Venture partner and Openland investor Jason Freedman said in a statement. "The real estate industry is rapidly catching up with enterprise technology trends and is ready to embrace professional messaging.”
