In-Building Tech

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Urvashi Verma

What building owners need to know about CBRS and in-building cellular coverage

Today many commercial office buildings suffer from poor connectivity which results in a loss of asset value and income for building owners and operators.

Now with the final approval of rules governing shared access to the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expected to be ratified mid-summer, building owners will soon be able to use private LTE as a means of providing reliable cellular coverage.

High cost and deployment challenges related to distributed antenna systems (DAS) have left building owners without a low-cost solution for improving cellular connectivity in office and industrial buildings. But once CBRS is approved, it will enable building owners and landlords to improve cellular signal strength at dramatically lower costs.

Citizens Broadband Radio Service is a 150 megahertz channel in 3.5 GHz band. Some of this spectrum will continue to be used by the United States government for radar systems but will be available for others when not used by the Navy and other incumbents.

While the radio interface is the same as LTE in the licensed spectrum the difference with CBRS lies in spectrum assignment.

To use CBRS spectrum, one must individually request and be assigned a band by a Spectrum Allocation System (SAS) programmatically. The SAS calculates RF density and channel availability using terrain and radio propagation data before authorizing the request.

When the use of the spectrum is no longer required, the channel is freed up for use by other requesters based on three levels of priority set by the FCC. Existing users will continue to have permanent priority as well as site-specific protection for registered sites.

Organizations can pay a fee to request up to four PALs in a limited geographic area for three years. Only the lower 100 megahertz of the CBRS band will be auctioned off; with restrictions of a maximum of seven concurrent 10 megahertz PALs allocated within the same region.

The rest of the spectrum will be open to GAA use and coexistence issues will be determined by SAS providers for spectrum allocation.

Through the shared spectrum, building owners will be able to control their own cellular destiny and no longer depend on the carriers or third parties to bring service to the building.

When CBRS is ratified, it will offer venue and building owners the opportunity to pay an annual subscription to operate their own private CBRS network in return for possible revenue sharing from the operators in the form of modest roaming fees.

Compared with DAS, the hardware used for CBRS is far less expensive due to its significantly smaller size which is comparable to existing Wi-Fi access points which will dramatically lower costs of deployment will be lower than Wi-Fi.

Many DAS and small cell OEMs are ready with products to deploy CBRS networks indoors and outdoors.

Ruckus has been among the first vendors to ship access points that support CBRS 3.5GHz LTE, which can be used to enable the deployment of private LTE networks.

The access points, the Q710 indoor AP and Q910 outdoor AP, will provide improved performance for environments especially buildings with poor cellular coverage. In the case of the Ruckus technology, the CBRS gear is actually able to snap onto Ruckus Wi-Fi access points.

Smartphone device like Samsung and LG are also gearing up for approvals and have included support of the CBRS in the Samsung’s Galaxy S10 and LG’s G8 ThinQ. Others are also expected to follow according to the CBRS Alliance industry group.

It is also likely that soon the neutral host model will be reimagined and no longer consist of owners and operators of multiple networks at a single location, but instead, as a consolidator of many CBRS networks into the core networks.

JLL expands reach for PropTech in EMEA region, partners with Concrete VC

JLL is expanding its reach to find the most disruptive commercial real estate technology to Europe, the Middle East and Asia through a partnership with UK -based Concrete VC.

The global brokerage services firm announced yesterday that JLL Spark, its ?$100 million Proptech investment arm, is partnering with U.K. investment advisor, Concrete VC, to find the most relevant startups in the PropTech sector.

JLL Spark which has made significant investments PropTech companies Dealpath, Jones, Hubble, Skyline AI, Honest Buildings, HqO and Vergesense stated Concrete VC will help identify investment opportunities and deploy capital to companies that will positively impact their respective markets.

?We?re looking forward to increasing our investment in Europe and connecting those startups with the customers and resources they need to grow and scale in commercial real estate,? stated Mihir Shah, co-CEO of JLL Spark, who underscored the role of that Concrete VC’s team has played in helping to identify promising new startups.

With the recent influx of investment from private equity firms like SoftBank and others which are flowing capital to global PropTech companies, interest from CRE brokerages to invest in the EMEA region is rapidly expanding.

According to a recent report by CREtech, nearly 80% of investment funding in PropTech last month went to mid to late-stage global startups.

The two firms recently invested in Hubble, an online platform for flexible office space in the UK.

JLL Spark, led?the $5.2 million Series A funding round for Hubble, a London-based tech platform that matches office users with coworking tenants like WeWork and IWG. According to Shah, co-working will account for nearly 30% of all corporate portfolios by 2030.

As a part of the new partnership, Concrete VC will evaluate commercial real estate technology startups on JLL Spark?s behalf to determine the best fit for the company?s business needs and could benefit from a cash infusion.

?We?re thrilled to partner with the biggest players in the commercial real estate industry to expand our influence in Proptech. Joining forces with JLL Spark to lead operations in EMEA is a momentous occasion. By combining our networks and partners, we have access to the most promising startups out there,? stated Taylor Wescoatt, founding partner of Concrete VC.

Concrete VC?s Corporate Advisory Group consists of nine global leaders in the real estate sector, including JLL, Seedcamp, flex workspace firm FORA, Lockton Insurance Group, Clifford Chance and Nuveen. The company acts as an investment partner to other large real estate players, Starwood Capital and London-based development giant U+I.

Global firms snag 80% of PropTech funding, more private equity flows to market

International PropTech companies led the path with nearly 80%, or $618 million, in nine deals this month according to data released yesterday in a report by CREtech a PropTech, data and content platform which covers trends in the commercial real estate tech sector.

While the month-over-month report, which provides a snapshot of investment trends, revealed a 73% decline to $775 million in February, the industry has seen a significant boost in investment from hefty global private equity investors.

Globally the largest investments went to Danke Apartment, Bayut and Yieldstreet.

?In the past 12 months, there has been a significant supergiant venture capital investments in PropTech companies have carried the industry. Ever since the rollout of the $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, established VCs have been outdoing each other to raise ever-bigger funds,? said Ashkan Zandieh chief information officer at CREtech.

Globally venture investments continue to pick up momentum, while domestically, venture fundraising data for 2019 reveals smaller and more focused funds closing on capital, Zandieh added.

?New money is coming to market and rolling out fresh rounds of curated funding,? Zandieh said.

Here?s a quick snapshot of the top three global firms which received investment in February.

Danke Apartment receives $500 million

Danke Apartment is a Chinese startup offering a dorm-like urban housing for young Chinese workforce raised $500 million as its valuation jumped over $2 billion. The series C round led by returning investor Tiger Global Management and newcomer Ant Financial, Alibaba?s e-payment and financial affiliate controlled by Jack Ma.

Likened to WeWork?s WeLive co-living enterprise, the startup divides large flats or apartments commonly found in China originally designed for a family of three to four into smaller units for young professionals who prefer to live urban centers at a more affordable price. To date, the startup has co-living operations in 10 major Chinese cities.

Dubai-based Bayut raises $100 million

Bayut has recently emerged as the fastest growing property portal in the world. The Dubai-based property website Bayut.com?s parent company Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), raised $100 million in Series D ?Proptech funding round in February.

The round was led by a U.S.-based family investment fund KCK Group and eight other investors including Exor Seeds, an investment fund associated with Exor ? one of Europe?s leading diversified holding companies with a capitalization of about $24 billion.

This round takes total investments raised by EMPG to $160 million, according to a statement released by the company. While half of $100 million investment is fresh funding and the remaining $50 million was announced last August.

EMPG owns and runs property portals in 40 cities across UAE, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Spain, and Romania, and has more than 2,000 employees.

NYC’s YieldStreet gains $50 million in equity financing

YieldStreet, a New York-based fintech digital wealth management platform that lets customers invest in asset classes at minimums as low as $5,000, secured $62 million in series B equity financing.

The round was led by Edison Partners, with participation from Greenspring Associates, Raine Ventures, and ?a large multi-billion dollar NY family office? according to a statement leased by the company.

The funding follows a $112.8 million debt and equity series A in June 2018.

YieldStreet generates an average 12 % internal rate of return (IRR) and made more than 300,000 principal and interest payments to over 100,000 investors in the past four years.

The company backs debt-based investments with collateral, ensuring a fixed interest rate during their duration. In the event a default occurs, investors have legal options to recover the principal and can liquidate the investment to collect interest. YieldStreet?s primary advantage to investors is its independence from stock and bond markets which provides insulation from stock market volatility.

New study finds high performance buildings draw higher annualized returns

High CAPEX costs often make it difficult for building owners to justify investment in high-performance buildings (HBP). Now a new study has revealed that owners can achieve an annual gain of $ 3,395 per year through investments in high performance buildings.?

The study which compiled financial impact calculations from more than 60 research studies with a focus on workplace productivity, employee retention, and wellness, found that HPBs gain $18.56 per square foot annually. ?

High performance buildings
Courtesy of Stok

 

While?utility and maintenance cost savings were among the most frequently cited benefits, they offered the least financial value. ?Forty-three percent of the total value of HPBs came from enhanced employee productivity, 41% from increased employee retention, 7% from improved employee wellness, 7% from utility savings, and 2% from maintenance savings.?

What makes a high performance building??

According to the National Institute of Building Sciences High Performance Building Council, an HPB is a structure which addresses the human, environmental, economic, and total societal impact through the application of the highest level of design, construction, operation, and maintenance principles.

While there are no direct requirements for HPBs, their value is often communicated through rating systems such as LEED, the WELL Building Standard, the Living Building Challenge, BREEAM, ?CASBEE, and others.

Key elements which are used to define high performance buildings

1. Enhanced occupant experience: High performance buildings embed human health, wellness, and comfort in the design, construction, and operations of a building or space within a building.

2. Optimized resource efficiency: HPBs provide greater value with less input by using the Earth’s finite resources without risking the future generation’s ability to utilize those same resources.

3. Minimal environmental impact: HPBs use strategies that significantly reduce or eliminate negative impacts on the natural environment without jeopardizing the intention or function of the building.

4. Embedded resiliency: HPBs are embedded with the capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to maintain or regain functionality and vitality in the face of stress or disturbance.

5. Improved financial performance: HPBs deliver a higher financial return than traditional buildings of the same use type due to the thoughtful integration of sustainable design principles.

Making smarter commercial real estate decisions

While the upfront costs of HPBs are greater than traditional building, over the long -term low-cost construction options stifle employee performance and risk obsolescence.

Annualized costs for construction are between 1% to 4 % however a company will spend 80% to 92% on people in the form of wages and benefits and 6% to 15% on operations and maintenance. ?

The report found that rather than focusing on the lowest costs possible building owners and tenants should shift their perspective to the long-term opportunities of HPBs.?

With the majority of long-term costs and significantly higher spend on employees and occupants, HPBs bring a larger return over the life of the investment.

How will the upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 impact in-building networks?

Wi-Fi is about to get faster with the release of its new IEEE standard 802.11ax, known as Wi-Fi 6. This latest update to the Wi-Fi protocol is designed to transmit data faster, better negotiate bandwidth among several computers and devices connected to a network, and offers more reliable delivery of high-bandwidth applications, such as streaming video.

What is Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6 is the common name given to the next-generation wireless standard that?s faster than 802.11ax and is the forerunner to Wi-Fi standards 802.11n (WiFi 4) released in 2009 and 802.11ac known as Wi-Fi 5 which was released in 2014. The next-gen WiFi 6 promises faster speed, better battery life and stronger performance in congested locations.

Benefits of Wi-Fi 6

The new standard offers faster data transfer speeds with a maximum potential speed 40% higher compared with Wi-Fi 5 when using a Wi-Fi router with a single device. WiFi-6 achieves higher speeds through more efficient data coding.

While the industry has shifted to 5 GHz Wi-Fi for less interference, Wi-Fi 6 will also increase speeds on 2.4 GHz networks which is better at penetrating solid objects.

Smartphone, laptop, and smart building devices should also have longer battery life with Wi-Fi 6.

The new standard enables Wi-Fi access points to communicate with a device more precisely by telling it exactly when to put its radio on to wake up receive next transmission and when to turn off. This feature conserves power, preserving battery life on devices by enabling the radio to spend more time in sleep mode.

According to Intel,?Wi-Fi 6 will improve a user?s average speed by a minimum of four times in congested areas. WiFi 6 will help to improve connectivity in devices across of wide range of applications including commercial office buildings, enterprise campuses and multi-unit residential buildings where a greater density of devices exist.

Wi-Fi 6 improves connectivity in dense device environments by dividing a wireless channel into a large number of sub-channels. Each of these sub-channels can carry data intended for a different device. This is achieved through a process called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access, or OFDMA.

The new standard also has improved MIMO?multiple-input, multiple-output, which uses multiple antennas that let the access point talk to multiple devices at once. With Wi-Fi 5, the access point could talk to devices at the same time, but those devices couldn?t respond at the same time.

Wi-Fi 6 has an improved version of MIMO, multi-user or MU-MIMO, that lets devices respond to the wireless access point at the same time. The new standard will have a significant impact on the commercial office buildings and workspaces as more employees and occupants will soon enjoy better bandwidth, faster speed, longer battery life and stronger performance in congested locations on their laptops and phones.

While for consumers, devices such as new routers, smartphones, tablets and laptops will automatically come with WiFi 6, building owners will need to upgrade networking devices and hardware to support the new protocol.

Currently, there are a few only a?WiFi 6 enabled devices on the market and?many network device makers have announced 802.11ax products to come and filed for FCC licensing.

The Wi-Fi Alliance expects the standard to be finalized and hardware to be released in late 2019 and is recommending that manufacturers indicate ?Wi-Fi 6? via a certified logo on routers and hardware enabled with the technology.

Why blockchain is the next big disruptor in commercial real estate

Blockchain technology, originally used for the verification of cryptocurrency transactions, is increasingly finding use cases in commercial real estate transactions where transparency and verification are of utmost significance.

While blockchain has gained infamy for its use in cryptocurrency transactions,?its applications and use cases have matured and today blockchain is being used across the world to verify voting ballots, land registries and personal identity.

Gartner had identified blockchain as among the top 10 most transformative technologies available today. ?According to the firm, blockchain technology is maturing and scaling fast and more tech leaders and innovators should start considering uses cases for enterprise architecture and technology.

What is blockchain?

A blockchain is a digital distributed ledger which records, verifies and maintains transactions across several computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network. Once a transaction is entered on the blockchain it is permanently recorded and any changes must be viewed and approved by the entire network.

Blockchain technology is highly efficient, secure and extremely transparent. These features make it extremely useful in commercial real estate transactions.

Below are four ways that blockchain-based verification systems can improve the commercial real estate industry.

1. Making the commercial real estate property search process more efficient

Currently existing multiple listing services or MLSs, which provide brokers and buyers access to property-level data such as location, rental rates and capital values, remain fragmented and report inaccurate data due to a lack of standardized protocols for reporting and verification of property details. As a result, misinformation is often passed on to buyer, brokerages and other intermediaries creating delays in decision-making funnel for both landlords and tenants and heightening mistrust about the quality of information available on MLS systems.

A blockchain-based MLS would enable data to be distributed across a peer-to-peer network in a manner that allows brokers to have more control over their data, and its ability to standardize and verify data regarding property features and sales would create greater trust and transparency.

2. Better pre-leasing financial evaluation and due diligence

The leasing and sale process in commercial real estate transactions is inundated with tasks that require verification of physical documents and proof of identity such as supporting the history of ownership, ?a tenant or buyer?s income, occupancy history and repairs and maintenance records. Currently, multi-year and commercial real estate leases and agreements can span between 200-300 pages based on terms.

The manual verification process which entails reviewing signatures and legal terminology becomes an immense administrative task and is prone to loss of information due to human errors. ?

By combining Blockchain, artificial intelligence NLP applications and smart contracts the commercial leasing process can be more streamlined, reducing transaction time to minutes from what could typically take months. ?

Blockchain-based verification processes could expedite sales and pre-transaction activities such as underwriting, financial evaluation, obtaining a mortgage commitment and others.

3. ?Simplifying and expediting CRE lease management and accounting processes

Among the complexities involved in managing CRE properties are the coordination and tracking of payments and transactions from numerous parties. Not only do payments need to be tracked but an entire group of intermediaries are used to confirm and monitor the financial records on a regular basis. Periodic cash flows for examples are investigated by real estate owners, auditors, banks, financial regulatory authorities, and appraisers.

As a result, real estate companies have rigorous accounting, compliance, and cash flow management needs that could be easily digitized on the blockchain and offer a greater level of transparency of all parties through the use of digitized or smart contracts.

The use of a smart tenancy contract on a blockchain platform would enable transparency in lease terms and transactions. The contract could use rent or bonds for automated payments to real estate owners, property managers, and other stakeholders along with near real-time reconciliation.

4. Improve the quality of data for predictive applications

Due to fragmentation and market localization, there’s a lack of rich real-time data analytics available to commercial real estate owner and brokerages. ?As a result, CRE management?s decisions are frequently based on data sets which do not provide a real-time view of ongoing activities. The fragmentation of data results in inaccurate decision making on part of owners but also impact the availability of data with AI-based systems are building predictive models for brokerages.

Blockchain technology can provide greater transparency regarding CRE transactions and offer open and shared database for all involved parties, enhancing both data quality and real-time recording and retrieval.

 

 

Why green data centers are attracting commercial real estate investment

Global demand for cloud and Internet services is increasing the demand for data centers and while this growth may be good for businesses and technology companies having a negative impact on the environment which has given rise a boom in green or energy efficient data centers.

Data centers will use 33% of global electricity production, which is more than double that of smartphones, by 2025 according to a study by Swedish researcher Anders Andrae. ?By 2025, data centers will use 20% of the world?s energy, with a footprint at 5.5% of global value by 2025, the report found.

Concurrently, commercial real estate investor interest in data centers is growing rapidly, due to global demand for faster connectivity and data storage. Data centers have demonstrated an increased potential to earn higher returns in key markets compared to other real estate acquisitions and are attracting more interest from publicly-traded REITs which remain bullish about the future of non-traditional real estate asset class.

A 2018 survey by CBRE found that most investors expected 10% or higher returns from data center investments in North America which saw a record level of investment in the sector in 2017.

Together these two factors are creating a fertile environment for innovation in the sector as owners and operators look to control energy costs while reducing their carbon footprint.

The storage needs for massive amounts of new data produced by technological innovation needs to be secured, cooled, and transmitted effectively 24 hours a day. Imagine the amount of power consumption that takes place when operating a server network with fans, consoles, monitors lights and cooling systems requiring to be lit, cooled, and secured 24/7.

Older equipment is another culprit which creates increased energy waste as it starts to degrade over time and as more operators are adapting to unmanned operations, data centers often subject to significant low power loss from either undetected?servers being down or unused.

For these reasons, many data centers are ?going green? and adopting renewable sources energy as a means of cutting costs and keeping their carbon footprint PUEs Power Usage Efficiency at record lows.

Big tech firms are embracing energy efficient data center processes. Servers for iTunes, Siri, Maps and the App Store now get 100% of their power from a combination of renewable energy sources. ?Apple purchases on-site generation capacity at the company?s data centers and achieves 100% renewable energy at all of its data centers.

Hyperscale data center operators like Google have achieved a 30% reduction in energy consumption by using AI software to operate and optimize their cooling systems in 2018. ?Google has purchased more renewable energy than anyone else in the market with contracts in place to purchase three gigawatts (3GW) of output from renewable energy projects making it the biggest corporate buyer of renewable energy.


Data center providers like Green House Data which ranks 25th on the EPA?s list of Top 30 Tech and Telecom offers 100 % wind-powered energy for their customers. ?The company uses carbon free cooling all year-round, customized modular units for data center designs, works very closely with new solutions around density and virtualization and carefully monitors power and temperature measurements.

Fueled by consumer demand for data, higher profits, innovation & technology and aim to reduce carbon footprint – green data centers may offer a more lucrative investment option for commercial real estate investors.

 

 

How can LoRa help building owners cut opex?

With the massive increase in the use of IoT (Internet of Things) devices in smart buildings, a number of IoT connectivity solutions have emerged to connect building users and devices in commercial office buildings. Among them is LoRa a low-power, long-range wireless radio frequency (RF) connectivity technology developed to address the challenges of IoT deployments in commercial and industrial settings.

While not commonly used in the U.S., LoRa devices and sensors have been gaining significant traction in global markets. The total number of LPWA units shipped are expected to more than triple to 339 million and are valued at nearly $2.6 billion by 2025, according to projections by analyst firm IDATE.

?We see a strong growth trend in Asia markets particularly China, Europe and the US due to LoRa’s?unlicensed network which has had a significant impact in smart metering applications,? said Marc Pegulu, vice president of IoT Products and Strategy at Semtech, in an interview with In-Building Tech.

LoRa smart building IoT
Courtesy of Semtech: Number of LoRa device shipments

LoRa is among a number of competing technologies in the marketplace for IoT connectivity including NB-IoT, Wi-Fi and Zigbee and has become one of the most widely used low-cost IoT in-building connectivity solutions due to its ability penetrate dense building materials and long-range data transmission capabilities which make LoRA an excellent candidate for smart building applications.

LoRA has the ability to penetrate dense building materials, including basements and underground locations and can track asset track assets up to 10 kilometers which make it well suited for use in commercial office buildings and campuses deploying smart energy solutions said Pelugu.

LoRa?s unlicensed and open architecture consisting of hundreds of sensors, actuators or tags to connect to the network in a cost-effective way, coupled with 10-year long battery life and large network capacity operators can set up ?LoRa-based networks quickly and at significantly lower deployment costs.

LoRa device applications in commercial office buildings

Top use cases for LoRa-based devices in commercial real estate buildings include smart metering, monitoring heating and cooling for energy efficiency, improved building maintenance through predictive analytics, occupant safety and security, real-time occupancy and space optimization, and geolocation and asset tracking.

?LoRa is an excellent metering application for water gas and electric meters and other utility applications because its inexpensive, offers long battery life and has cheaper endpoint devices costs, ? said Pelugu who added that the technology has been tested and executed in large carrier-grade deployments across the world in areas like China and Brazil where it holds 25% of the IoT market.

Pelugu said he expects large carrier-grade network deployments to continue due to LoRa’s scalability and an increasing number of networks using the same protocol which creates a dense network of LoRA enabled devices.

And, unlike mesh networks such as Zigbee or short range RF technologies like Bluetooth and WiFi, LoRa does not require property management companies to use building installers to deploy the network or highly-skilled technicians to manage it.

Like most smart building IoT connectivity options, LoRA offers building owners the ability to significantly reduce costs while generating new sources of revenue by lowering energy costs and increasing tenant satisfaction to achieve higher property values and rents.

Technical advantages

LoRa?s technical advantages include very low asset deployment costs due to a need for fewer gateways when compared with WiFi. A single gateway can cover the entire loT systems including the building, underground parking garages and outdoor recreational spaces which eliminates the need for complex coverage analysis often required by other mesh network solutions.

There is also no need for power source wiring due to its low power consumption and long battery life characteristics. With AES-128 encryption built in itis also a more secure option that WiFI and the worldwide standard LoRaWANTM specification is easily scalable.

It is also the only commercially available solution that features free GPS service at no extra power cost and operator free spectrum ISM bands making a low-cost solution for smart buildings.

Westsell partners with Irish software developer on CBRS Private LTE network

U.S.-based Westell Technologies, Inc. has partnered with Irish cellular network software developer Druid Software to make small cell solutions for the CBRS band.

Together the companies will provide a cellular core network technology platform, designed for managing CBRS small cell solutions for the private networksin the US.

?We are seeing strong demand for private 4G LTE networks in the US with the dawn of OnGo,? said Stephen John, CEO of Westell Technologies, Inc. who described OnGo – the name given to the Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) for shared commercial use of the 3.5 GHz (3550-3700 MHz)- as an ?essential alternative? to public carrier networks? for enterprises that require critical communications.

In collaboration with ip.access, a developer of carrier-grade small cell radio solutions, Westell says it plans to offer a carrier-grade 4G LTE private network which will feature increased range, better throughput, and high quality of service for voice, messaging and data.

Ip.access small cells have been used Druid?s core software in medical centers, hotels and resorts, theme parks, residential developments, transportation hubs, universities and?campus-based enterprises.

Liam Kenny CEO of Druid software stated that the company has already deployed campus-based enterprises and industrial businesses deployments in Europe which have helped to establish a strong business case for the US market.

The monthly cost to deliver a gigabyte of data is 40% less using a CBRS base station when compared to a traditional LTE small cell using a licensed spectrum, according to a report by the CBRS Alliance.

Among the advantages of OnGo are its capability to aggregate up to 40 MHz of cheap spectrum and a much lower cost per square foot because a single radio can support all four major operators in the 3.5 GHz band by default unlike the multiple, parallel operator-specific small cells which are required in a traditional licensed small cell deployment use case.

Although DAS costs can be brought down by using small cells as a signal source for smaller venues, OnGo still offers a much lower-cost alternative for mobile LTE coverage.

Despite lower investor confidence, 46% of PropTech CEOs optimistic

Investor confidence in PropTech startups declined to 7.7, after reaching 8.7–its highest level in a two year growth period, due to volatility and market uncertainty, as investors scaled back funding resulting is slower portfolio growth compared a year ago, according to new report released by MetaProp, a New York-based tech accelerator and venture capital fund focused on real estate and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Real Estate Board of New York.

Despite the 12% decline in investor confidence, 60% of PropTech investors indicated that they plan on making more investments in 2019, an uptick of 14% from last year and 32% of PropTech CEOs forecasting 5X growth in 2019.

?From our vantage point, the PropTech market remains extremely healthy and the best innovators continue to create intriguing investment opportunities. This sentiment seems in line with our professional investor peers, ? stated Aaron Block co-founder and managing director of MetaProp NYC.

Among the report?s significant findings was an increasingly optimistic outlook from startups for exits and acquisitions with 46% of PropTech CEOs stating it is either likely or very likely that their company will be acquired, go public or have a major liquidity event compared with 28% in mid-2018.

 

Courtesy of MetaProp Advisors’ Global PropTech Research


Additionally, the average number of investments in PropTech startups have nearly doubled from 5 from 2.7 from a year ago.

The startup confidence index which decreased scantly to 7.0 from 7.2 in mid-year 2018 was a reflection of lower capital raising sentiment and increasing competition as more nearly startups are aiming to create innovative solutions in the sector. ?Nearly 90% of investors stated that they expect to see either the same amount or more pitches from startups in 2019, compared with 2018.

Survey results underscored that the biggest challenge for PropTech startups is trying to convince investors and customers of the role technology can play in enhancing the industry instead the task at hand will be finding a way to stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape.

The report found that investor focus is also shifting from residential and B2C applications to smart city verticals, smart buildings, fractional ownership in the commercial real estate sector and broader insuretech and fintech are also poised to for growth. ?In construction tech, AI and predictive analytics based solutions are expected to gain significant traction.

Nearly 35% of investors indicated that they are most interested in smart building applications, followed by a tie at 21% between space management and usage and finance and investments. Only 9% of investors indicated an interest in consumer and broker focused tech solutions.

A broader set of market opportunities will be addressed and more real estate companies start operating like tech firms, according to Paul Levine, partner at Sapphire Ventures and former president of Trulia.

?Many companies that are built and financed as hybrid real estate and tech companies. Historically, real estate investors and technology investors operated quite independently, with little crossover. Today, given all the innovation and company formation, we?re seeing tech-enabled real estate companies that are operated and funded by VCs as classic tech companies, while also financing significant balance sheets for real estate investing,? stated Levine.

While last year saw both wins and losses from a maturing market, 2019 will be a year with regional winners competing on a global scale according to Julia Arlt global digital real estate leader at PwC.

?There will be less room for small startups that are poorly funded or have sub-optimal teams. The next step will be for big regional winners to start competing on a global scale. I would like to see successful examples of companies taking their business model to other markets outside of Europe, to show others what a successful global roll-out looks like operationally,? stated Arlt.

PropTech Firms will also need to balance between scaling to broader markets with the CAPEX costs of expansion.

?For PropTech startups broadly, the balance of capital and scale will continue to be an important challenge to keep an eye on. As more companies look at model?s that require significant CapEx investments (think WeWork), look for companies that are thoughtfully building more capital efficient models,? stated Jason Fudin, CEO, and co-founder of WhyHotel.