PROPSTER Overview of 2021 – Important Highlights of the Year
Tomorrow’s buyers are today’s digital natives
As we approach the end of January, the majority of us have recovered from the New Year celebrations or returned from much needed holidays and the working world is gradually picking up speed again. This makes now the ideal time to look back over the past year.
Real estate is considered a valuable investment, especially in times of crisis. The rise in property prices over the course of 2021 underlined this. The omnipresent topic of Covid continued to dominate collective headspace. However, unlike in 2020, the industry was much better prepared to deal with Covid. Those businesses that had learned from the previous year took steps to address their operational deficits by engaging with PropTech solutions. Many of our clients realised that, with PROPSTER’s digital customer platform, they could overcome the restrictions brought about by Covid.
PROPSTER enables the purchaser to configure their dream property, be it a flat, a house or an office conveniently using their own device; independent of time and place.
Regardless of the pandemic and its impact on business practises, the fast-approaching world of tomorrow is forcing businesses to digitise their customer journeys. The simple reason being; the buyers of tomorrow are the digital natives of today and they expect to be able to complete everything online.
A look back at the milestones
As we look back at 2021, we see specific moments that have positively influenced the direction of our growing company.
It’s no secret that PROPSTER is actively pursuing international expansion. After all, the solution we provide is global in its design. It was, therefore, obvious to us that we should seize all of the opportunities that should happen to present themselves.
In-line with our global outlook we applied for the Go Silicon Valley accelerator program. The American judges recognised PROPSTER as a timely solution, and invited us to partake in the program. More than 100 Austrian start-ups applied, but only 15 other start-ups including Esquirrel, Birdkids, Valutico received an invitation to the USA. Remarkably, we are the only PropTech in this illustrious cohort.
Unfortunately, the Covid situation in the US led to the postponement of the 2021 program. Come late February 2022, however, and us PROPSTERs will be ready for our American adventure.
In May, we dropped the investment bombshell
For two months we kept the news about the successful closing of our Seed + funding round a secret. Then, at the end of May, we dropped the bombshell.
In all, a total of 3 million euros changed hands. In addition to the existing 4 business angels (Markus Ertler, Susanne Gulz, Christiane Weissenborn and Heinrich Gröller) who have backed us from the beginning; eight other investors got behind PROPSTER. The consortium includes AWS Gründerfonds, Axeleo, Pi-Labs, Realty Corporation, Afondo GmbH, Wolff + Müller, BRI ImmobilienInvest GmbH and Emery Jonathan.
The financial capital has mainly gone into growing our teams and the continued development of new markets. The number of employees rose from 25 to now a proud 41! Despite some difficulties due to Brexit, we finally added the UK as a promising market.
Not long after we’d released the news of our successful funding round, our CEO and founder Milan Zahradnik finally had the opportunity to stand on a real stage again. At the Palais Eschenbach, Milan put on a convincing performance which saw PROPSTER chosen as the winner in the ‘Manage and Operate’ category at the APTI (Austrian PropTech Initiative) Awards. This was an important victory for us that highlighted, once again, that we’re on the right course.
Last, but not least, we experienced another success towards the end of the year. Our submission to the TU Innovation Challenge fell on fertile ground. Along with 4 other finalists, including LineMetrics and Payuca, we were invited to present PROPSTER’s vision and mission. Following interesting presentations from all involved, we were selected as the overall winner to cap off a very positive year for all of us involved with PROPSTER.
With a strong and united team, anything is possible
All this looking back shows us one thing above all: Anything is possible if you put your faith in the right team.
It’s like a cogwheel, where all the cogs mesh together harmoniously. This is particularly important for us at PROPSTER, because we still have plenty of big goals ahead of us and, if we’re to achieve these objectives, we need every member of the team working well together and moving in the right direction.
Here’s to a successful 2022!
