MetaProp

Zach Aarons and MetaProp have played a pivotal role in the development of the proptech industry. Before Aarons founded MetaProp, which today is a leading proptech firm, he began his career in investment banking and later launched a walking tour startup, before transitioning to work in his father’s real estate firm. This blend of real estate and technology exposure sparked his interest in modernizing the real estate industry through technology. Like many leaders in proptech, he became passionate about using technology to enhance the efficiency and modernization of the real estate sector. Aarons went on to earn an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he combined his enthusiasm for New York’s startup ecosystem with the real estate industry. In a class led by General Partners from RRE Ventures, Aarons was encouraged to explore real estate technology further and even wrote a paper about emerging proptech companies like VTS, Hightower, and CompStak®. Aarons' career serves as a strong example of how leveraging one's unique strengths and experiences can lead to professional success, particularly in the early stages of a career. Learn about his story in this conversation with Fifth Wall CEO & CIO, Brendan Wallace. #proptech #realestate #entrepreneurship

Apply to join the new accelerator class! Spread the word! #PropTech

🚀 Applications are open for the 2025 MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University program! Entering its milestone 10th year since inception, the MetaProp Accelerator has graduated over 50 startups, who have collectively raised more than $200 million in venture funding and achieved notable exits, including 6 acquisitions by industry leaders such as JLL, Comcast, Realtor.com, and Alarm.com. Our flagship 22-week program provides up to eight early-stage startups with unprecedented access to strategic funding and new enterprise clients around the world. If your company is addressing critical real estate industry challenges and is ready to accelerate market penetration, we want to connect with you. We're thrilled to reveal our first 2025 cohort member: BuildrFi, a Miami-based startup streamlining financial workflows for the construction industry. We're also proud to announce our renewed partnership with the REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York), who will provide exclusive opportunities for its members to engage with cutting-edge PropTech innovations through events, pilot days, and mentorship programs. Learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/e9E2ztYe Read more here: https://lnkd.in/enhTUuy6 #PropTech #venturecapital #VC #realestate #PropTech #accelerator #startupaccelerator #innovation

Super Early Bird sale ends soon! Save $500 and book now! I'm speaking at CREtech New York 2024, the world's largest real estate innovation and sustainability conference in the US. Featuring facilitated 1:1 networking, C-Suite speakers you won't find at any other proptech event, attendee-led breakout conversations and more, there is no better place to Reimagine the Built World. Register to attend here: https://lnkd.in/gr_xTd-q #CREtechNewYork2024 CREtech

Congratulations to MetaProp Co-Founders Zach Aarons and Aaron Block for being named to Commercial Observer's 2024 PropTech Power List. It's great to see so many MetaProp friends, portfolio founders, and strategic Limited Partners recognized as well. Each has played a pivotal role in advancing our industry: Chase Garbarino, Marshall Cox, Valkyrie Holmes, Maureen Waters, Clelia Warburg Peters, Raj Singh, Yao Morin, Scott Rechler, Matt Boras, Andrew H. Min, Tom Scarangello, Michael Beckerman, and Arie Barendrecht. #PropTech #realestate

🚀 Announcing our investment in Get 100! Fraud is amongst the biggest challenges the real estate industry faces today, costing multifamily operators billions. Enter 100, the modern, end-to-end screening and servicing platform for multifamily operators to eliminate fraud and friction from the rental process. With the launch of a first-of-its-kind Verified Renter Network™ ("VRN") and partnership with CLEAR, 100 is rethinking tenant screening for a more efficient and secure future. MetaProp has had the privilege of working closely with CEO and Co-Founder Caren Maio for over a decade. We could not be more excited to work with her and participate in 100’s Pre-Seed financing alongside Freestyle Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Contest Point, and more. 👉 Read MetaProp's Zak Schwarzman break down why we invested here: https://lnkd.in/eait8pmK #PropTech #RealEstate #VC #venturecapital #multifamily 

MetaProp’s been busy — we’ve made over a dozen new investments this year through our core funds, the MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University, and our Scout program. In the meantime, #PropTech continues to navigate both headwinds and tailwinds, but there’s plenty of momentum and success to highlight. From our vantage point, the entrepreneurs entering PropTech today are among the highest quality we’ve seen in some time. The pressure on real estate has led to fewer opportunistic players entering the space, creating a shakeout and leaving behind a cohort of PropTech founders who are building with a considerable degree of tenacity and grit, many bringing over a decade of experience as the industry matures. Check out some data about Mid-Year 2024 here.

📰 Just Released: MetaProp’s Mid-Year 2024 Global PropTech Confidence Index Sponsored by PwC and presented by REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York), and RICS, this bi-annual report highlights key trends shaping the global PropTech landscape, offering insights to investors, entrepreneurs, and real estate executives on the sector's evolving challenges and opportunities. In a recent interview with Commercial Observer, MetaProp Co-Founder and Managing Partner Aaron Block discussed the report’s findings and shared his outlook for the industry in the coming year: “There’s a lot of watchful waiting from the investment community that is neither super-bullish nor super-pent-up. In fact, it can act a bit more rosy than one might expect if you’re an outside non-venture observer, and certainly if you’re a real estate observer." On the prospect of entrepreneurial growth, Block added, “I expect it to be robust. From a new startup creation perspective, we’re seeing folks who are technologists jumping in and building companies. We’re also seeing many real estate folks peel off their legacy roles and create tech-driven solutions to problems that they know better than anybody else." Read the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/eSfTCGMY 🔗 Download the Global PropTech Confidence Index here: https://lnkd.in/e4muq_eT #PropTech #VC #venturecapital #insights #realestate #realestatetech #globalproptechconfidenceindex #GPCI

We are really excited to partner with the indefatigable Caren Maio on her new venture that’s going to make it much easier for people to rent an apartment across the country. It’s also going to massively decrease fraud across the sector and make the job of property managers and leasing agents much easier!

🚀 Exciting News: The Next Chapter Begins!  “To play the game is good, to win is better, but to love the game is best of all.” I love our industry and the people in it. It's been an incredible ride since co-founding Funnel over a decade ago. Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to see multifamily proptech from additional angles – as an operator, investor, and mentor. These experiences, while incredible, led me to hang up my founder’s boots. Until now. I’ve always promised myself that the next venture would only happen if I felt that unmistakable pull – that deep drive to work towards something that needed to exist because it was solving a pressing problem in a big market, something that felt inevitable. After many conversations and deep market analysis of the industry’s pain points and opportunities, I’m thrilled to announce I’m getting back into the game. I’m honored to introduce you to 100. 100 is solving one of the most frustrating challenges in the national rental market: fraud, a pain point over 93% of multifamily operators have experienced this past year. Despite the industry’s progress around technology adoption, renting an apartment is still full of friction, inefficiency, and bias. Our team is uniquely positioned to make a real impact—providing operators the tools to make decisions with 100% confidence while giving tenants a more dignified and trusted experience with 100% security. With that, I am thrilled to announce that we have teamed up with CLEAR. We’ve launched the first-of-its-kind Verified Renter Network. 100 and CLEAR’s strategic partnership will transform the process to make renting an apartment faster, more transparent, and, most importantly, fairer. Renters benefit from a faster application and screening process, while multifamily operators save time and money by reducing fraud and increasing payment rates. As with any startup, forging dreams into reality takes a village, and I’m humbled to partner with incredible minds. Some are familiar, like Vishal Patel and Matt Goldeck, who I had the great pleasure of working alongside for years during our Funnel days. Some are surprising – like Lucas Bourgeois, Michael Davis, and Timothy O'Connor – former fierce and formidable competitors, who were instrumental in scaling Knock. And some are longstanding – like Shawn Sullivan – a strategic voice pivotal in helping the company take shape. This combined crew has admiration and respect for one another that runs deep, and I’m eternally grateful to work alongside them. And on the topic of gratitude, today we announced that we have raised a $5.2 million pre-seed round to deliver on our vision. I want to thank our investors — Freestyle Capital, MetaProp, RiverPark Ventures, Contest Point, Joanne Wilson, and more. Your repeated vote of confidence in this team means the world to us. For those of you who want to learn more, please reach out at caren@get100.com, follow us on LinkedIn, and get 💯.