Motive, the Dallas accelerator dedicated to boosting real estate tech startups, announced its first cohort of companies Tuesday.
The startups, which were chosen from about 80 applicants, largely focus on the commercial real estate market. Each of the companies is already in the marketplace and serving customers.
Motive will invest $40,000 in each startup in exchange for between 6 percent and 10 percent of equity. A demo day is planned for November in conjunction with the DisruptCRE conference, which takes place this year in Dallas.
Here are the startups:
Dwelo (Salt Lake City, UT): “Bringing the smart home into the apartment,” is how Motive co-founder John Backes describes the company. The company has software that creates a “smart hub” dashboard that allows management companies to monitor each apartment’s smart devices, such as Nest thermostats.
Skyrise (Dallas): This company creates a connected high-rise with an app that allows tenants to upload pictures of maintenance issues, inform tenants of building amenities such as free bikes that can be checked out, and hosts a virtual building directory.
Leaseful (Dallas): This is a website that allows college students to sublet parts of leases, say, for when someone has a year’s lease but gets a three-month internship and needs someone to take over the rental payments.
Casalova (Toronto): An eBay for rental units. Landlords can list units available and prospective tenants bid on the rent they would be willing to pay.
