RealConnex, a four-year-old, Miami and New York-based platform connecting real estate professionals to capital, investments and services, has raised $3.5 million in strategic funding led by Silver Portal Capital, a San Diego-based real estate investment and merchant banking firm.
The round is part of a much bigger trend of startups working to change how properties are built, bought and sold — and investors are funding their vision. In fact, according to the research firm CB Insights, real estate tech companies have raised almost $6.4 billion in funding across 817 deals since 2012.
RealConnex was founded by Roy Abrams, who spent much of the dot.com era in international sales and business development roles at Lotus Development before serving as CEO at a couple of digital media agencies in London.
Abrams set up his first property development company in the U.S., following the financial recession of 2008; RealConnex was later born out of his struggle to efficiently find people he wanted to work with on real estate projects, including developers and lenders.
Abrams describes RealConnex as “Match.com meets LinkedIn for the real estate professional,” connecting people who work on real estate projects before they’re listed and once they’re in full swing. For example, a real-time dashboard organizes members’ activities and reports on their interaction with other members; the platform also features rooms where all parties involved in a project can collaborate online.
The company says it now has a community of 65,000 active users; a database of 200,000 companies, individuals and funds; and that it currently lists 9,000 investment opportunities across all stages.
The round brings RealConnex’s total funding to $10.2 million; previous investors include Star Capital, Stratus Venture Group and GreenOak.