Former WeWork executive Dominic Penaloza is reinventing real estate in Asia by launching Asia’s first PropTech innovation studio. Called REinvent (“RE” is short for “real estate”), this “real estate startup studio” focuses on tech specifically for the real estate industry.
Consisting of a mix of 45 technology and real estate industry veterans, REinvent is an in-house, full-time, and full-stack technology development organization. All designers, engineers, real estate operators, etc. are based in offices in Singapore, Shanghai, and Taipei.
REinvent is backed by four of Asia’s largest property companies. JustCo is the leading co-working company in Asia-Pacific, which is backed up by these big property owners in Asia, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, multi-national property developer Frasers Property, and one of Japan’s leading real estate companies Daito Trust.
According to the company’s website, REinvent’s mission is to “reinvent real estate using its core competencies of technology product development, business model innovation, and venture building.” Through its “innovation studio”, REinvent hopes to create a repeatable process that creates a “large and profitable standalone PropTech business.”
So far, REinvent has two ventures in its portfolio. Switch is an on-demand platform for workspaces. With over 2,000 workspace desks across 25 different locations, individuals and businesses can book a space to work in and pay by the minute. Also, the company offers what it calls “Switch Booths”. These private work pods look pretty cool. They look like you could be in some sort of sci-fi and outer space container. And, when you’re not in the office or at home, they might offer you the right amount of peace and quiet needed to jump on a quick call.
The company’s other venture is SixSense. This software is like “Google analytics for space.” Using artificial intelligence, SixSense gives you data-driven insights so you can better optimize and utilize your space. But, it doesn’t just offer spatial analytics. The software also provides a social distance detection service. It can automatically measure if social distancing rules are being complied with, and it can send out overcrowding alerts to teams in real-time.
“We believe the future of real estate is when people will consume it as a service. This would unlock the world’s most precious asset so that more people can use it in more ways, adding a new dimension to the relationship between the landlord, tenant, and non-tenant,” said Penaloza, CEO of REinvent.
So far, the company seems to be headed in that direction.
Veronica Garcia has a Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Science in Radio/TV/Film from The University of Texas at Austin. When she’s not writing, she’s in the kitchen trying to attempt every Nailed It! dessert, or on the hunt trying to find the latest Funko Pop! to add to her collection.
