The District, a new congress held in Barcelona from 19th to 21st October, brought together more than 7,000 professionals from the entire real estate value chain to analyse a number of trends, particularly those related to the adoption of new technologies and sustainability.
With sessions and debates featuring high-profile speakers, Europe’s largest real estate congress was the ideal venue for showcasing the results of all four editions of the Esade Alumni Real Estate Challenge. The Esade Alumni Real Estate Club and Esade Alumni Entrepreneurship organised a panel discussion at the Innovation Arena featuring two proptech startups that have participated in the Real Estate Challenge.
The panellists were Saúl Garcia, founder and CEO of StageInHome, and Paula Sánchez Collado, CEO of CoCircular. Pau Barbarà, manager of Esade BAN, and Acisclo Pérez (Lic&MBA ‘08), an Esade Alumni Real Estate Club board member, moderated the session and shared information on early-stage investment in the real estate sector.
As Pau Barbarà explained, business angels are key players in early-stage investment. Fintech and enterprise software are two cross-cutting sectors that are generating considerable interest at the European level, as they are directly applicable to real estate. “This is why proptech is so relevant and there are so many opportunities,” explained Barbarà.
“After this first edition, I think that The District is a very promising gathering with the potential to become a can’t-miss event,” noted Acisclo Pérez. “It was a good idea to take part in this initiative. The idea is to keep nurturing the alumni community with real examples and actions from a wide variety of professional profiles offering different perspectives. And that’s what we did with the proptech panel.”
Paula Sánchez presented CoCircular, a company that aims to prevent construction waste from ending up in landfills by following EU guidelines, which require 70% of waste to be recovered and traced. CoCircular transforms waste into opportunities and certifies its recovery.
StageInHome, the winner of the third edition of the Real Estate Challenge, uses artificial intelligence techniques to automatically decorate rooms in current styles, either to sell or rent properties or as inspiration for redecorating a home.
The entrepreneurs shared their origin stories and discussed the various challenges they encountered as they brought their projects to fruition, as well as their relationship with other industry players with whom they share synergies, such as corporations. “The truth is that, as the entrepreneurs noted, there is implicit tension in this type of collaboration due to the culture clash,” explained Barbarà. “But it is a key alliance, because a corporation can contribute a lot of value and boost the growth of startups.”
StageInHome, the winner of the third edition of the Real Estate Challenge, uses artificial intelligence techniques to automatically decorate rooms in current styles.
This year, Esade Alumni Entrepreneurship, together with the Esade Alumni Real Estate Club, is organising the 5th edition of the Real Estate Challenge [k1] to capture the dealflow of the proptech sector. “After four editions, this initiative has become an opportunity radar,” commented Pau Barbarà. Acisclo Pérez added: “It is an enriching initiative because it brings multinationals into closer contact with startups, opening up a wide range of opportunities for both parties, fostering networking and generating solutions for everyone. In fact, some of the winning startups have emerged as important proptech companies at the national level.”
