[angl. Proptech arba Property Technology – tai inovacijas ir skaitmeninę transformaciją nekilnojamojo turto industrijoje apibendrinantis terminas]
Last Friday, important changes took place in the Lithuanian Proptech ecosystem. Some of the strongest leaders of the real estate market – Eika, Civinity and Eastnine – joined the community, a new board was elected, with Eika CEO Domas Dargis as its chairman. The Sustainable Innovation Center Rockit and the Lithuanian Real Estate Development Association became the association’s strategic partners.
Martin Eitmon, the founder of two Proptech startups, was elected President of the Association.
The Chairman of the Board of the Association, D. Dargis, noted that they managed to find a balance between the interests of startups and real estate market players and to work together to achieve a common goal – for Lithuania to become an international center of real estate innovation.
According to Eitmon, the fact that the community has united 38 different companies during the association’s first year of operation shows that the market’s interest in innovation is growing and a vibrant Proptech ecosystem is forming.
The startups of the Proptech Lithuania community are working on artificial intelligence, 3D printing, WEB3, digital twins[angl. digital twins], sustainability, data analytics, digital identity, finance and many other areas.
The most active and best-known startups are NUMAI, CityNow, Speiz, Profitus, Flanco, Strato group, Viridis sustainability, Discontract, Hoo controls, which operate not only in Lithuania, but also in foreign countries – Latvia, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Norway and elsewhere. It is gradually becoming clear which startups have the greatest potential to become the first Proptech unicorns in Lithuania.
“Lithuania has a huge innovation potential not only to innovate its own real estate market, but also to create innovations for the world. We have the necessary qualifications in our community to achieve an innovation breakthrough – startup creators have reached career heights in companies such as IBM, Facebook, Citi group, and have been recognized by Forbes 30 under 30,” says Viktorija Čijunskytė, a member of the association’s board and founder of Profitus.
Eastnine CEO Kęstutis Sasnauskas emphasized that it is difficult for large real estate companies to innovate internally, so partnering with startups is a very logical step. “Technological advancement can become an important factor in gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage. As one of the largest office building managers in Lithuania, we will provide Proptech ecosystem members with the opportunity to test their products in our buildings, and we will encourage innovation in hackathons and accelerators,” says K. Sasnauskas.
According to the venture capital fund Sustainable Future Ventures, the market size of the Proptech industry (Total Addressable Market) is worth $24 trillion.
Proptech Lithuania aims to grow and attract 300 Proptech startups to Lithuania, which would pay 1 billion euros in taxes to the Lithuanian budget over a decade.