JLL Announces Winners of India’s Biggest Proptech Challenge

by Priya Jadhav

Rigorous selection process found the best technologies from amongst the initial ~750 applicants

·         With a potential investment opportunity, JLL IDEAs - JLL’s proptech accelerator programme started in partnership with Invest India, AGNIi and Startup India will fund three top startups

·         The final round of selection focused on identifying leading real estate technology startups and innovative technologies from companies

·         Winners received awards, with the potential funding opportunity by JLL Spark, mentorship from industry leaders, incubation opportunities and client meetings to test and pilot their solutions in a real world environment

Mumbai, November 2019: JLL, leading real estate and property investment management consultants that is running the country’s biggest Proptech accelerator programme, JLL IDEAs along with Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation agency, under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, has selected --- Wegot Utility Solutions, Facilio and Reomnify --- three leading real estate technology companies for further funding and mentorship. JLL also announced a special award to Drona Technologies for showcasing best in class tech innovation for social change.

JLL IDEAs is India’s biggest real estate proptech accelerator that will continue to promote startups working on cutting edge, disruptive technologies and solutions impacting developers, investors and occupier clients in the country.

The company said, JLL will invest up to a crore in these companies and will provide mentorship from real estate leaders, offer incubation opportunities and client meetings to test and pilot their solutions in a real world environment. A portion of the funding will come from Silicon Valley-based venture capital arm of JLL, JLL Spark. With US$100mn of investment fund, JLL Spark is focused on creating new products, investments and supporting startups in the real estate tech industry. All three companies selected offer technologies that can be used across multiple geographies and segments of real estate business.

The winner, Wegot Utility Solutions offers VenAqua, an IoT water management platform that enables real time data driven and automated decision making to reduce the demand for water and increase the efficiency of the water infrastructure in every property. The solution not only reduces the water consumption by up to 50% and cuts down maintenance cost by more than 30%.

The first runner up, Facilio uses IoT to connect existing building automation systems with everyday facility workflows empowering FM workforce with real-time actionable insights. It provides prescriptive AI-driven insights to every building stakeholder (owners to FM to technicians) to proactively manage asset performance. It also applies machine learning to predictively analyse the performance of high-value assets and fine-tune energy efficiency.

The second runner up, Reomnify uses location-based intelligence to help clients to make an informed decision on expansion and setting up of offices. Constellation award winner, Drona Technologies has a sewage pipe cleaning robot that can be used to clean drain pipes and remove scaling from sewers.

Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head - India, JLL said, “I am delighted to announce the winners of JLL IDEAs, who have excelled on all parameters of the selection committee, and have bagged the top slot in country’s biggest proptech accelerator programme. I sincerely thank our jury members, partners for their continued support. Along with our partners, Invest India, AGNIi and Startup India, we will continue to work along with the winners and help them scale up and grow across geographies.” 

Albert Ovidi, COO – Asia Pacific and Managing Director – Property and Asset Management, Asia Pacific, JLL said, “India’s property technology and startup ecosystem has immense potential to grow. There is huge opportunity for all kinds of meaningful players, who wish to help the sector in several ways and bring efficiency in the market. This opportunity continues to draw investors’ attention to India’s nascent property technology market.”

Sandeep Sethi, Managing Director – Corporate Solutions, West Asia, JLL said, “While we have selected the top three property technology startups, we will continue to nurture more such emerging tech innovations in real estate sector in future under JLL IDEAs. True to its name, JLL IDEAs will continue to promote tech adoption in real estate sector in years to come.”

Prior to the final round conducted on Friday, the judges had identified 15 finalists through the jointly conducted hackathons in Bengaluru and New Delhi, respectively.

About JLL Spark:JLL Spark is dedicated to transforming the real estate industry through technology-based innovation. JLL Spark provides the nimbleness of a startup backed by JLL's expertise and resources. Led by experienced Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with successful track records building and investing in tech companies, JLL Spark's strategic proptech investments offer JLL the ability to provide innovative products to real estate owners and operators. JLL Spark was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.jllspark.com

About JLL India: JLL is India’s premier and largest professional services firm specialising in real estate. With an estimated revenue for FY 2018-19 expected to be approx. INR 4,000 crore, the Firm is growing from strength to strength in India for the past two decades. JLL India has an extensive presence across 10 major cities (Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Coimbatore) and over 130 tier II & III markets with a cumulative strength of close to 11,000 professionals.

The Firm provides investors, developers, local corporates and multinational companies with a comprehensive range of services. This includes leasing, capital markets, research & advisory, transaction management, project development, facility management and property & asset management. These services cover various asset classes such as commercial, residential, industrial, retail, warehouse and logistics, hospitality, healthcare, senior living and education.

JLL India won the Five Star Award for ‘Best Property Consultancy at the International Property Awards Asia Pacific 2018 -19. The Firm was also recognised amongst the ‘Top 100 Best Places to Work in India’ in 2017 & 2018 in the annual survey conducted by Great Place to Work® and The Economic Times. It has also been acknowledged as ‘Property Consultant of the Decade’ at the 10th CNBC-Awaaz Real Estate Awards 2015. For further information, please visit jll.co.in

About Invest India:Invest India is the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation agency. Invest India, promoted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce & Industry is mandated to promote and facilitate foreign investments into the country. Several key government initiatives like AGNIi and Startup India are housed within Invest India. AGNIi is the national technology commercialisation program which aims to boost the innovation ecosystem in the country. Startup India is the government’s flagship initiative to foster the startup ecosystem in the country. For further information, please visit www.investindia.gov.in