Wanted: The Best Startup Ideas

Digital technologies are expected to boost innovation for the real estate industry by creating new products, more efficient processes, and customer-centric solutions.

The PropTech Innovation Award, initiated by Union Investment and the German Tech Entrepreneurship Center (GTEC) in Berlin, aims at the targeted promotion of this exciting development. This first global PropTech competition seeks the best start-up ideas for the real estate world of tomorrow.

With a total prize of €35,000, the PropTech Innovation Award recognizes approaches, prototypes, and business models that show a high level of innovation that makes them examples of the many opportunities provided by the digital shift in the real estate industry.

“The new technologies harbor huge potential for more efficient business processes and successful new business models. We want to use the PropTech Innovation Award to raise awareness within the real estate industry of the innovative potential of digitization and to bridge the gap between the established and the new real estate economies,” says Reinhard Kutscher, Chairman of Union Investment Real Estate GmbH.

12-month support program

In addition to financial support, the winners will receive the chance to use the GTEC Lab in Berlin. In addition to advising on legal, tax, and business issues, the 12-month support program provides access to GTEC’s international network of investors and advisers. The public award ceremony in Berlin, Europe’s start-up capital, offers the shortlisted nominees an appealing public platform for presenting their applications and developments.

The application period for the PropTech Innovation Award runs until March 15, 2017. Winners will be determined via a multistage process and selected by an expert jury. Information and the application can be found at http://gtec.berlin/proptech2017/.

The PropTech Innovation Award is part of a strategic cooperation between Union Investment and the German Tech Entrepreneurship Center. Union Investment and GTEC agreed to the partnership in July 2016. It provides Union Investment with opportunities for the rapid and flexible implementation of selected innovations. In addition, the cooperation aims at networking with startup companies and at cross-industry exchange with other GTEC partners.

“The PropTech Innovation Award marks the start of an exciting collaboration between GTEC and Union Investment and we look forward to shaping the future of the digital world together,” said Benjamin Rohé, Managing Director of GTEC.