How many Proptech companies are there in the world?

Originally published at Ascendix Tech blog.

Over the last few years, the proptech market map has turned into a whole universe with a huge number of proptech companies that reportedly equals 10,000. To navigate this complex field with different domains and technological trends of different strategic orientations, now one certainly needs a map.

In this article, we would like to measure the pulse of the current state of the real estate market and define the most successful proptech companies and areas that attract the heaviest investment. Moreover, we will answer the most frequent questions regarding the highest value proptech unicorns and the state of the European proptech market.

How much is the Proptech market worth?

According to Future Market Insights, the proptech market is expected to grow from US$ 18.2 billion in 2022 to US$ 86.5 billion in 2032 with a significant CAGR of 16.8% during the period 2022-2032. (source)

The rapid expansion of the proptech market was surged by COVID that broke through the industry’s centuries-long reluctance to adopt tech and finally put the RE market in the innovation train. The size of the global proptech investment market has grown and in 2021, it peaked at $24.3B. (source).

At the moment, proptech is a huge market that, together with its sub-markets, makes up a large part of the global economy. The market size of proptech equals $22.2T. Its submarkets and adjacent markets add another $7T to its market size. (source)

How Many Proptech Companies are There?

The total size of startups and more established proptech companies equals over 10 000 vendors. The number of proptech startups revolves around 6000 – all of them make an impact increasing the flux of investments to USD 3.4 billion in H1 2022. (source 1, source 2)

Globally, the United States holds the largest number of PropTech companies, with 59.7% of the world’s total, followed by Europe (27.2%) and Asia (3.5%). (source)

The United States also leads in terms of investments with $1,079B in total. Besides being the global leader in raising investment funds, the USA is also the top destination country for attracting foreign investment in the PropTech sector.

However, Europe is quickly catching up with the US with businesses scaling just as fast. Europe is also seeing significantly larger funding rounds and increased interest in the market from investors and international venture capitalists. According to Crunchbase, European investors led 77% of seed fundings in Europe, 68% of early-stage fundings, and 49% of late-stage fundings.

What are the Biggest Proptech Companies in the USA?

According to Annual Barometer, three American proptech companies better.com ($700 M), Service Titan ($500 M), Hippo Insurance ($500 M) were leaders in terms of investment in 2021.

In the United States, the PropTech market is estimated to have a CAGR of 16% through 2032 (source). Thus, despite the slow economic growth expected in the US over the next few years, the US is probably the destination where the term ‘proptech’ is the most sound.

The US market hosts the largest number of proptech companies – 59.7% of the world’s total (source). According to Unissu, in 2021, the total number of tech companies in this destination equals 2234. (source).

What are the Top Proptech Countries in Europe?

According to Statista, the leading proptech country in Europe in 2022 is Spain with $2,500 million investments. Among the leading Spanish companies is Glovo and Idealista which successfully attracted $649 million and $304 million of investment funds in 2021 (source). The major focus of Spanish companies is on the housing sector and the technologies that can be used there.

Despite the period of uncertainty caused by Brexit, the UK is still among the leading proptech markets in Europe with the largest number of companies (709) and $2,300 million investments. In 2021, only the UK’s LendInvest got $700 million in investment funds, according to the Annual Barometer. The PropTech market in the UK is expected to have a CAGR of 17.1% through 2032. (source) Germany closes the top three with $ 2,100 millions of investments and the expected size of US$ 444.39 million by 2028. The market also is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10.4% from 2021 to 2028. (source)

Why is Proptech in Europe so Dynamic?

The introduction of brand-new practices in sustainable asset development and climate control makes the EU proptech market more compliant, predictable, and risk protected.

Europe is becoming the capital of proptech events in the world – standardizing the defragmented EU market together. Also, compared to other markets, the European market is still largely undigitalized. Meanwhile, industry challenges, from climate change regulation to urban development and population growth, require new technological solutions to ease the pressure on profits and efficiency.

Another point is the investment influx in the EU proptech which according to PWC is expected to reach $69 trillion by 2033, showing a strong indicator for the future. (source)
European proptech leaders in terms of deals in 2021 include: (source)

• McMakler with US$ 94M raised; Location: Berlin, Germany
• Bien’ici: €33 Million raised; Location: Paris, France
• rent with US$ 5.5M raised; Location: London, England

How Many New Proptech Startups are Founded In Europe?

Between 2010 and 2022, more than 330 new proptech companies were founded in Europe. The UK, Germany, and France comprise 201 of the totals. (source).

Is Proptech a Lucrative Place for Investment?

According to Statista, 31% of commercial real estate investors are planning to invest in proptech companies. This in turn creates a lot of competition among venture investors. On the graph below, Statista demonstrates investment volume in proptech companies worldwide from 2010 to the 1st quarter of 2022, by subsector. Having a glimpse, one can understand they need to be inventive today to thrive in the market tomorrow.

In 2021, the European PropTech market registered a record year in 2021, reaching approximately 20% of global investment, including over 200 venture capital investments totaling €3.8 billion (representing a growth of 350% compared to 2020). (source)

The top EU destinations for investments raised between 2020-2021 are Spain ($974B), UK ($909B), Germany ($245B).

That’s impressive, considering that for a long time the European proptech giants were ‘locked’ in their national market. Due to different industry standards, legislation, and processes. As a result, the very prospective markets in Europe couldn’t cross the borders of their own country. Unlike the American or Asian market, the European proptech market is not standardized. Instead, it is extremely defragmented, consisting of separate ecosystems in different countries.

Despite that, according to PitchBook, now the EU proptech market is growing even faster than it is in North America.

What are the Most Valuable Proptech Companies?

In between 2022 and 2021, the most valuable proptech companies were The We Company ($1,100B), Better.com ($700B), Lendinvest ($682B), Glovo($649B), Loft ($525), etc.

Speaking of categories, the heavier investment receive property management and construction tech solutions with $17.1B in 1.2K+ companies and $28.1B in 1.4K+ companies accordingly. (source 1, source 2) In terms of the proptech market growth, the most competitive companies focus on production and generation of revenue to increase the proptech market share (source).

Why is Proptech Important?

Companies and real estate users can benefit from the introduction of proptech primarily through automation. The latter is changing the way RE does business with visible results. Reportedly, automation software can increase leads flow by 77% (source). Secondly, technologies behind proptech make a difference making the industry simpler to navigate and ultimately more financially rewarding. Proptech and tech innovation are important, above all, because they change the way people buy and sell a home by:

• digitizing traditional workflows and modernizing the closing process
• bringing more transparency and control over the property and tenant life cycle
• generating and analyzing valuable insights on property maintenance, sales, and sustainability
• fostering better communication between tenant and landlord

In the end, proptech makes real estate a lucrative area for investors, while thousands of tools improve the customer journeys of real estate customers and industry professionals. According to Statista, a total of $12.05 billion was invested in proptech in 2021. All of this in the complex improves tenants’ experience and makes the industry more attractive for profit generation.

What Technologies does Proptech Use?

Advances in technology in real estate are changing global consumption patterns, transforming our perception of property building, management, selling, and renting. It gives the green light to companies, especially startups, to innovate products and change the real estate market.

The technologies behind proptech include big data, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), the internet of things (IoT), 5G, and blockchain. AI (26%), AR, and VR (12%) are the top three technologies making the most significant impact on real estate. Big data and IoT are just a few percent behind them. (source)

What’s in the Proptech Market Map?

The real estate market consists of different market players and each of them looks at different proptech. Maybe that’s the reason why at the moment, there is no single view on the real estate market. However, the first beginnings are starting to crystallize with the help of innovative proptech companies and communities all over the world.

In 2021, Catalyst Investors, an equity capital firm investing in high-growth technology companies, presented its overview of the proptech market in the form of a full-fledged map of the proptech network. This is a very practical categorization since more than 50% of proptech companies focus on sales and leasing, but transactional tasks are considered the most overwhelming and laborious when buying or selling property. The map introduces companies from both commercial and residential real estate markets.

Proptech companies on the map are classified according to their type of operations: listing, broker tools, financial/capital market, underwriting, leasing and lease management, property management, building automation, and tenant experience. Each category represents the top real estate proptech companies, their solutions, and how they improve real estate operations at each point of the real estate customer journey. Among these names are the most acknowledged and well-funded solutions according to Crunchbase like Airbnb ($6.4B), Zumper ($180.2M.) – one of the largest marketplaces in real estate, Buildout ($8.4M), VTS ($462.4M), Sharry ($3.4M) – advanced visitor management and tenant engagement software, Density ($217.2M), Appfolio ($30M), etc.
Detailed characteristics of the companies mentioned above can be found in our list of the most innovative proptech solutions for commercial real estate.

Is Airbnb a Proptech Company?

Airbnb is a vivid example of a proptech online real estate marketplace. Today, the market valuation of this shared economy platform is $30 billion (source). The success of the Airbnb model has inspired many other platforms. As a result, there are now many new real estate marketplace platforms in Europe, which have their own niche, but essentially work in the same way. Good examples are Spotahome, 9flats and Homaway (now Vrbo) – European rental platforms.

The platform provides users with access to various apartments, rooms, or even houses in 191 countries around the world in a flexible home-sharing format. On Airbnb, people can easily list, search and book accommodation online with the help of their mobile phones.

Looking for a Proptech Software Development Company?

Implementing innovation shoulder-to-shoulder with major industry players, like JLL, Hanna Commercial Real Estate, Cresa, and others for 26 years, Ascendix invested its best practices and industry expertise in the development of innovative proptech solutions for the real estate market.
Regardless of the niche you want to take on the real estate proptech market map, Ascendix may contribute to your growth by:

• providing access to the latest real estate technology innovations: custom-made & feature-rich software tailored to real estate
• make use of authoring solutions that have been tailored specifically for real estate professionals
• speeding up back-office processes and offloading your real estate workflow
• access to seasoned real estate consultants: understand how current and upcoming IT trends can impact your business
• straightening your existing technology team with real estate technology experts
• reduce costs and equip your team with up-to-date tools to make more deals with less stress and manual input

Ascendix builds effective digital real estate for different niches, domains, and various real estate players. Once you’re looking to create a prospect app or improve the existing one – contact us – we have a proven tech record to meet your requirements.

If you're curious to get more info on this topic, check out the whole article Proptech Market Map: How Many Proptech Companies are There?