Veev Raises $97M To Date

Veev Group Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based integrated real estate developer, raised $97m to date and closed its Series B funding round. The round was co-led by Zeev Ventures and Lennar Ventures. The funding includes $85M in equity and $12M in debt and will be used to accelerate the development of the Veev panelized building system, as well as to scale the business. Additional participants in funding to date include Eclipse Ventures, Green Spring Associates and Khosla Ventures with Western Techno…

How AI Could Compete With CRE Brokerages One Day

Download CREtech’s Monthly Deep Dive On Tenant Experience

Long term room-rental platform Badi launches its service in NYC

As things stand in many countries, renting houses and whole apartments is relatively straightforward, if you can afford it. But trying to find rooms in those apartments and houses to rent has been chaotic for many years and relies on hugely informal networks. Some startups have launched in recent years to address this problem of finding roommates and rooms for rent as the market becomes more competitive.

Surprise: WeWork’s CMBS Exposure Still Growing, Reaches $5.6B

WeWork battled extreme turbulence in 2019 after a failed IPO and a flurry of negative headlines, but, to the surprise of some analysts, that didn’t stop properties leased by the coworking giant from being used as collateral for billions of dollars worth of securitized mortgages in the last few months.

Inside ‘Amazon Go Grocery’: Tech giant opens first full-sized store without cashiers or checkout lines

Amazon Go is going full grocery. Two years after launching a chain of convenience stores without cashiers or checkout lines, Amazon is opening its first “Amazon Go Grocery” store in Seattle on Tuesday morning, enlarging the footprint for surveillance-style shopping and signaling a larger challenge to the broader world of brick-and-mortar retail. The debut is also the answer to a longstanding mystery about the 7,700-square-foot space, at 610 E. Pike Street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. …

Staples is opening podcast studios in six Boston stores

Staples’ latest ploy to get people into its retail stores is podcast recording booths. This week, the podcasting company Spreaker announced that it’s part of a collaboration bringing recording spaces to six Staples stores in the Boston area. The booths are part of a new Staples Connect model, in which the retail stores offer coworking and community event spaces.

The Flexible Office Economy w/ Mark Gilbreath, CEO LiquidSpace Podcast

Join host Mark Gilbreath for “THE FLEXIBLE OFFICE ECONOMY” a weekly dive into the fast moving waters of flexible office, coworking, mobility, workplace experience and commercial real estate,  featuring candid conversations with innovators and leaders from across the Flexible Office Economy.

Driverless car startup Pony.ai raises $462 million at a $3 billion valuation

In a sign that investors’ enthusiasm for driverless cars hasn’t dampened yet, Pony.ai today secured a whopping $462 million in fresh funding, $400 million of which came from Toyota. The capital infusion brings the Guangzhou- and Fremont, California-based startup’s total raised to about $800 million at a valuation north of $3 billion (up from $1 billion as of October 2019), following previous venture rounds just shy of $265 million in total.

Culture Building in PropTech

How to create an extraordinary startup culture while selling into one of the most antiquated industries on the planet. I gave a presentation a little bit ago about creating a culture of innovation within the PropTech ecosystem. I based my comments on my interpretation of the current thinking around company building as well as a synthesis of the thousands of conversations I’ve had with CRETech/PropTech founders, investors, and customers over the last decade….