New Proptech Africa association launches to promote sector to property industry

Africa’s fast-growing property sector is expected to benefit dramatically in years to come from the emergence of a vibrant proptech startup ecosystem.

This is the view of the founders of Proptech Africa, which claims to be the first continent-wide association of its kind.

The non-profit association was launched yesterday Rosebank, Johannesburg at the African Proptech Forum, an event held in partnership between African Property Investment (API) Summit and WeWork.

Founded by Kevin Teeroovengadum (pictured above), Sean Godoy, Wayne Berger and Richard Bensted, Proptech Africa plans to promote the proptech sector to the property industry and related stakeholders as a whole in order to raise awareness and drive growth on the continent.

Proptech Africa plans to promote the sector to the property industry and related stakeholders

In a statement yesterday, Teeroovengadum, who is a African real estate advisor, said while the association is self-funded by the co-founders, the co-founders intend to bring in sponsors to assist in annual funding.

Over the next year, Proptech Africa will host its own events in places such as Nairobi, Lagos and Mauritius.

Teeroovengadum said the association plans to host several events across the continent in the next year in places such as Nairobi, Lagos and Mauritius.

“We will meet with proptechs on the ground, and even provide support and guidance to them by, for example, opening doors for funding,” he added.

PropTech Africa’s two other founders Godoy and Berger launched the association SA PropTech earlier this year.

Godoy is the founder and director of property-focused advisory and training solutions company Divercity Property Solutions, while Berger is the managing director of iShack Ventures, a venture builder developing technologies in the real estate, fintech and edutech sectors.

Berger has helped create innovative proptech businesses in South Africa, such as big data-enabled proptech management and communication platform SmartBuilding as well as leading independent commercial property portal Instant Property.

Commented Godoy: “We are looking forward to linking up SA Proptech to PropTech Africa. I had the privilege recently of participating as a panel speaker at the African Real Estate Conference and Awards (Afreca) in Lagos, Nigeria where I met a number of young, up-and-coming startups. There’s no doubt that we can expect to see lots to come from Africa’s proptech scene.”

The association’s PropTech Africa app (both Android and iOS versions) has an African PropTech startup directory. Startups can list on the app for free.

Read more: Africa Proptech Forum to delve into real-estate disruption

Featured image: Proptech Africa co-founder Kevin Teeroovengadum (Supplied)