What do you get a robot for its birthday? $1m in capital is a great place to start.
Brisbane based proptech company AIRE, the maker of a ‘digital employee’ called RITA®, has raised $1M from the Real Estate Industry Venture Capital Fund run by PieLab Venture Partners and the Queensland Government Business Development Fund (BDF). The investment comes just days before the second anniversary of RITA’s launch.
RITA is a cloud based SaaS application that uses artificial intelligence and automation to deliver a daily list of optimised leads to real estate agents. The solution is a next generation productivity tool that supercharges the existing human and technology resources within a real estate agency.
“Although we are a technology company, we believe deeply in the value that is provided by agents in the delivery of professional real estate services. RITA is about supporting the agent to spend less time looking at screens, and more time connecting with their customers and their community,” said AIRE CEO Ian Campbell.
“In the past decade, despite the billions invested in proptech, the key metrics of agent productivity and consumer satisfaction have barely shifted as a whole. We believe AI and automation are the key to unlocking all new levels of productivity, service levels and agent job satisfaction. We want to deliver measurable outcomes for our clients, and the industry as a whole.”
AIRE have had great early customer adoption in both Australia and New Zealand from single, independent agent level right through to corporate franchise level.
“Overwhelmingly the feedback from agents and agencies using the product was that they were having more meaningful conversations, having fewer hang-ups and generating genuine leads (appraisals, listings, new managements) more consistently from their prospecting. In short, users felt Rita was one software product they used in their agency where they generated real returns on the investment,” said PieLAB Managing Director Chris Rolls.
The investment from PieLab is matched by an investment from BDF, a Queensland State Government initiative to encourage investment into early stage companies based in Queensland. Queensland’s Deputy Premier and Treasurer Jackie Trad said that supporting emerging companies through the $80 million Business Development Fund (BDF) underpins the Government’s commitment to growing jobs and strengthen the State’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“The Fund has been successful in growing the pool of angel and venture capital funding to support the growth of innovative businesses, which in turn creates high-value jobs and showcases Queensland in Australia and around the world,” said Ms Trad.
“It is a strategic investment to drive growth and development of the product in existing markets and will help get us to where we want to be in terms of product capability and customer base sooner,” said Mr Campbell.
About AIRE : AIRE is a Brisbane based software development company that specialises in AI solutions for the real estate industry. Founded in 2017 by Ian Campbell, AIRE now has over 250 agencies who employee their Digital Employee, RITA. RITA works alongside almost 2,000 agents in Australia and New Zealand. Visit www.getaire.com.au for more information or email ian@getaire.com.au for further comment.
About PieLAB : PieLAB Venture Partners is a venture capital business established in 2016 which operates the Real Estate Industry Venture Capital Fund 2016. The Real Estate Industry Venture Capital Fund is Australia’s first real estate specific technology fund which invests in businesses that provide products and services in and around the Australian Real Estate Industry. Visit www.pielab.com.au for more information or email info@pielab.com.au for further comment.
About the BDF : The Business Development Fund (BDF) is the Queensland Government’s $80 million early stage and follow-on venture capital fund run by QIC investing in growing emerging innovative Queensland businesses. Established in 2016, the objective of the Fund is to grow the pool of angel and venture capital funding available to Queensland businesses and support the growth and creation of high-skilled jobs in Queensland.
