Considering the size of the industry, proptech still lags behind the dynamicism of fintech, which the accelerator hopes to help fix

Tony Lombardo, Asia CEO of Lendlease (foreground) and Albert Ovidi, COO of JLL in APAC (backgroun)

JLL and Lendlease, two large real estate corporations, announced today the launch of Propell Asia, a regional accelerator focussed on property technology (proptech) startups in Southeast Asia.

Headquartered in Singapore, the programme will be called Propell Asia and focusses on startups in areas like property management, real estate transactions, construction management and big data.

It will be launching with two other partners — the coworking space District6 and a creative design incubator named MeshMinds.

The property giants are looking for companies who have raised “up to Series A” and the 10-week programme will include two tranches.

First, Propell Asia will find about 10 startups for the first part of the programme. They will receive mentorships, corporate connections and office space.

After five weeks, the Propel Asia team will chose five startups. Those five will receive $20,000 for up-to 5 per cent equity stake in the startup. They will then continue for another five weeks until the programme ends.

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JLL also has a large US$100 million global venture fund called Spark and the team was open to the possibility that a qualified Propell Asia alumni could take advantage of the investment avenue.

“Through Propell Asia, we want to discover promising startups with sustainable and innovative solutions that can transform the real estate industry. Against the backdrop of urbanisation and the rise of smart cities, our industry in Asia pacific is primed for the next wave of disruption,” said Albert Ovidi, Chief Operating Officer of JLL Asia Pacific in a statement.

During a press event with e27, he also said blockchain and smart contracts are the cutting-edge technologies in the real estate sector and the industry is currently trying to figure out how to use it.

One of the core themes of the event was the sentiment that property technology is still a missed opportunity in the startup world. It is a US$53 trillion industry across the world with Asia contributing US$16 trillion to that number.

But if proptech is compared to the dynamicism of fintech, it does lag behind the finance industry’s startup sector. Propell Asia hopes it can become one of the driving forces that helps proptech grow into a similarly vibrant startup ecosystem.

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Applications open today and will be opened until August 17. The accelerator will officially begin in early September.

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