In Latin America there are more than 1,300 proptech startups; Mexico is the second largest market in the region

Startups have seen in the real estate segment a market with potential for growth and attention to its inefficiencies, which has prompted the sector proptech (real estate technology) to establish itself in Latin America.

According to the business platform Proptech Latam, at the beginning of 2022 there were more than 1,300 startups proptech with operations in Latin America; however, it is expected that at the end of the year this number will be higher given the potential of the real estate market.

According to a study by the platform, Brazil is the country that leads the market in the region, since it has 955 startups proptech in operation, above Mexico, where 140 firms have been identified, and Colombia with 115.

For Mario Quintanilla, Institutional Relations leader of the real estate marketplace Loft, the Mexican market turns out to be attractive for investors because the volume of its real estate industry is among the largest in the Latin territory, especially among Spanish-speaking countries.

“Mexico is the Spanish-speaking country with the largest (real estate) market, which is one of the reasons why there is a lot of interest from investment funds in the United States,” said the specialist.

Despite being emerging, the sector of startups proptech it has managed to position itself as the third preferred segment by venture capital investors, according to the consulting firm Endeavor.

According to the consultancy, in 2021 the sector proptech from the Latin American region raised capital for more than 1.3 billion dollars, thus doubling the total amount raised during 2020, which was 570 million dollars.

“We still don’t know if this year it will be possible to double the amount of investment, but we do expect good growth. It must be considered that in 2022, there was a retraction of venture investors, since they are only targeting startups with sustainable business models,” said Andrea Rodríguez, founder and general director of the Proptech Latam business platform.

Between the firmas proptech latinas with the highest capital collection during the period from 2021 to 2022, are: Loft (425 million dollars) QuintoAndar (300 million dollars), Habi (200 million dollars) and Haus (135 million dollars).

Finally, Rodríguez mentioned that among the challenges for the sector proptech in 2023, they are consolidating the evangelization of technology companies for real estate and addressing the talent shortage for the formation of digital development teams.