Commercial property startup Inspace raises $4 million pre-series A for global ambitions

Proptech platform Inspace, which enables real estate agents to host virtual property inspections, has raised $4 million in a pre-series A as it eyes off the US and UK markets.  

The round was led by Our Innovation Fund (OIF) with support from Aconex co-founder Leigh Jasper, seed VC Investible and Artesian.

OIF Partner Geoff Levy, a former Mirvac director, will join Inspace’s board.

The Sydney SaaS startup’s platform is already used by more than 90% of Australia’s top tier commercial property landlords and agents. Inspace’s customers include Dexus, Mirvac, JLL, CBRE, Blackstone, Brookfield, ESR and Lendlease.

Founder and CEO, Justin Liang, said that in the past 12 months, Inspace’s subscription base has grown 13-times, with its the platform enabling more than $1 billion in real estate deals in the past month.

Inspace’s ‘Stack’ virtual property visualisation platform has growth rapidly in Asia-Pacific markets, including Australia, Singapore and Japan. The company is now looking to crack the US and UK, to help property firms globally complete sales and leasing deals despite Covid-related travel restrictions. 

“We’re focused on helping our real estate customers navigate the Covid-enforced shift from physical inspections to digital walkthroughs. From day one we have had the vision to host the digital replica of every commercial building in the world and Covid has materially accelerated the adoption of our thesis in the industry,” Liang said.

“Every property asset owner, agent, manager, tenant and user is looking for innovative ways to sell, lease, or interact with their physical asset  in the digital world. We’re providing them with an actionable platform that provides key ROI including more  prospects to a sale or leasing in a marketing campaign, a faster sale or leasing process, more data and  analytics and a more engaging experience for all stakeholders.” 

Customer push to go global

Liang said they’d had strong interest from the US, with their customers taking them global.

“In 12 months we’d like to have a strong presence in the US and UK markets and host the portfolios of the largest real  estate companies on our platform”, he said.

“Australia has an incredible property and technology reputation globally and we want to build on that and build a business we can all be incredibly proud of.”

Charter Hall chief technology officer, Sheridan Ware said Inspace helped them visualise, plan and co-create spaces with tenant customers.

“We’re proud to have worked with Justin and the team since day one,” he said.

OIF partner Laurence Schwartz said his VC firm’s deep software background and experience in proptech will aid the startup’s international ambitions.

“Justin is an exceptional founder building a world class team, product and company in an industry that is going through massive digitisation,” he said.

“As engagement with physical real estate  becomes more digital, Inspace will be leading the way and we’re very proud to be partnering with Justin and the team to achieve this globally.”

Inspace is based at the ACS Harbour City Labs at Barangaroo.