Shirlhey Sánchez

Colombia Proptech aims to significantly increase the adoption of technology in the property market and has created an ecosystem that promotes higher productivity, profitability, and sustainability through technology.

What specifically are you attempting to achieve in the property market, and how do you employ technology?

Proptech is currently a much more consolidated and visible ecosystem, we aimed to significatively increase the adopt of technology within the industry in Colombia and the region. At the end of 2018, the importance of technology introduction within the entire sector, in both construction and real estate started to be clear; hence, in 2019, we decided to launch the first proptech association in Latin America by mapping technology-based companies that were seeking to transform the real estate and construction sectors and by that, we effectively created an ecosystem that today is the power of digital transformation promoting higher productivity, profitability and sustainability through the application of technology in processes, services, and products within property market. Colombia Proptech has become an example of innovative ecosystem for the entire region. Our objectives are to unite all companies seeking innovation in the industry, educating people and promoting policies that would allow technology to be fully integrated into the industry.

How precisely does the association operate in practice to support business expansion and success?

We started with 19 associate members in 2019, and our growth to date has been fivefold. In other words, we managed to exceed the number of new associates aimed at for 2022 reaching 105 associates. For 2023 the expectations are higher. The main objective was to create an ecosystem, not only to bring technology-based companies together at one point, but to create an ecosystem capable of transforming the industry. We know the importance of the industry: construction and real estate, and therefore its potential contribution to GDP. Fostering innovation was particularly relevant, especially for the sector’s sustainability. We work with large construction-real estate companies, as well as medium sized and small firms who may have once framed themselves as traditional, which today have a strong commitment with digital transformation; In these cases, we promote open innovation among associated. That is where we really make up the ecosystem—an ecosystem where we integrate and work collaboratively. We truly believe that it is through collaboration and joint support we can totally transform the industry from a technological point of view.

How do you perceive the influence of your work in challenging conventional construction and real estate industries?

In the beginning, there was a great fear of how things would change in the traditional industry. Proptech arrived with new and disruptive business models, so, we went from a time when there was a certain fear, especially when it came to adopting new technologies or believing that new technologies would eventually replace the traditional model. Two things arise: the traditional industry does not cease to be concerned, but its interest in learning about Proptech does increase. And second thing, there was huge number of new proptechs and for those already existing, a rapid growth was experienced. One of the key influences is to advocate-educate about proptech and specially about all the technologies and trends. I want to share the knowledge, experiences, and positive impact that each technology in proptech can bring to the industry. Different technologies including big data and analytics, VR, blockchain, AI, and many others are changing the way we see this industry and will change the lives of not only enterprises but also consumers.

And what is the impact in terms of investment and raised capital for the sector?

I should highlight the ecosystem is having an amazing trend of growth and development feeding interest to investors. In 2021 more than USD300 million were raised by our start-up proptechs, and in 2022, by mid-year, they had already achieved that value, closing the year duplicating the amount of money we had achieved in 2021. In the current year investors remain interested, and Colombia continues to be an appealing market because of high quality and demonstrated outcomes obtained from local proptech start-ups.