AI metering and surveillance to dominate smart city market to 2026, boosted by new applications

Smart utility metering for power, gas and water, and video surveillance will remain by far the largest smart city segment, representing 87 per cent of the total number of smart city connections by 2026. This is according to new analysis by ABI Research. The company predicts that smart city tech investments will reach over $61bn globally in 2026. While metering is mainly focused on usage monitoring, savings and efficient operation of utility networks, video surveillance is no longer just about se…

Re-Imagining Real Estate. FUTURE PropTech Launches Brand New Agenda

FUTURE PropTech, part of the World’s number one real estate technology event series, has just launched the 2020 agenda. The event will gather 2,500 institutional investors, real estate private equity, fund managers, property developers, construction firms, facilities & property managers, surveyors, brokers and VC’s at Magazine London on 13 and 14 May. The agenda will be delivered by over 100 speakers across 2 stages, all under the over-aching theme of Re-Imagining Real Estate. A mixture o…

WeWork Is Still a Good Business at Its Core, SoftBank Says

SoftBank Group Corp. said it believes WeWork’s core business is still good despite governance and execution challenges. “We are still in it, we are involved, we are helping the company because we believe the idea at its core is very, very good,” said Deep Nishar, senior managing partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund. “We will help solve WeWork’s problems with corporate governance with the next set of management,” he said at Munich’s Digital Life and Design conference Saturday….

JLL appoints CIO for Australia and New Zealand

JLL has announced the appointment of Kathleen Stubbs as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Australia and New Zealand. Most recently Kathleen was the Global Head of Infrastructure and Service Delivery (Deputy Global CIO) for Knight Frank’s global head office in London. CEO of JLL Australia & New Zealand, Stephen Conry said, “Kathleen’s global and Australian experience is impressive and spans Blockchain for property, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation solutions. We …

3 tech giants are teaming up to make smart-home devices easier to use

Exclusive: Punch List Raises $4M Seed To Streamline The Home Renovation Process

If you’ve ever remodeled any part of your home, you know the headache that comes along with the process. It’s not nearly as glamorous when you don’t have the deep pockets (or expertise) that HGTV’s Chip and Joanna Gaines have to deal with unexpected problems. Kyle Zink, the first marketing hire at Square, found this out firsthand after purchasing a home in Southern California a few years ago. Zink hired a contractor through a trusted source and was excited about fixing up the house. But the proc…

Google CEO Thinks AI Will Be More Profound Change Than Fire

Google’s chief executive officer has left no doubt about how important he thinks artificial intelligence will be to humanity. “AI is one of the most profound things we’re working on as humanity. It’s more profound than fire or electricity,” Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.

CREtech Weekly PropTech Venture Capital Funding Recap

This week witnessed several relatively large deals across a variety of countries, where deals in Morocco, Germany, the UK and North America dominated headlines. The majority of this week’s capital went to companies that aim to transform the hospitality, retail and residential categories through AI, SaaS, cloud and other technology platforms.

Why multifamily developers are looking to parking lots

The world of parking lots is changing across the globe — and in many cases, it’s making room for housing. As local authorities across the world try to curb car numbers in city centers, parking lots are becoming less important in certain areas, while sitting on valuable — and scarce — land. As a result, they have been selling quickly, especially in urban areas. And with many global cities facing housing shortages, these vacant spaces are often being redeveloped to meet that demand, says Brandon R…

Cherre and AirDNA Announce Partnership to Incorporate Short-Term Vacation Rental Data into Cherre’s Platform

Cherre, the NYC-based real estate data and analytics platform, today announced a new data partnership with AirDNA, the industry’s leading provider of short-term rental data. In this partnership, Cherre will integrate AirDNA’s short-term rental market data into its platform, enabling mutual customers to seamlessly connect vacation rental data and analytics with third-party and public data to fuel real estate decision making. AirDNA’s short-term rental data provides valuable insights into the p…