“Real estate lives off data and information,” says Nash Adjaye, founder of location comparison platform Walulel. “And our whole business is trying to turn data into information.”
Starting in London with plans to expand into cities overseas, Walulel is a geospatial intelligence and communication engine.
Confused? Essentially, it is a platform that will provide all the information you would ever need to know in any London postcode.
From property values to the “walkability” of an area based on average sea level heights twinned with pavement width and road congestion data, Walulel delivers more than just cold, hard stats. It all comes down to analysis.
The engine has been designed to answer everyday questions such as: “If I live in Battersea how likely am I to get a seat on the 9am train to Waterloo from Clapham Junction?” or “If I live in Hackney, how much do most people earn in my area and what do they do for a living?”
With a clear use value that goes way beyond the realm of the general public and prospective renters and home buyers, Adjaye says the use of a product is limited “only by the imagination”, before adding there are currently three parts of the market the team is targeting.
“Walulel has applications for the whole spectrum of the real estate sector.
“If we were to market to everyone immediately, the acquisition costs would crush us so we are focussed on the three areas of the market where there is the most need. And that’s real estate managers, real estate agents and sharing economy platform providers.”
As for the data collection, Walulel uses more than 500 sources.
“We use the ONS, the GLA and some data we mine ourselves,” says Adjaye.
“Any source of data, we will go reaching for it. We are using all sorts of weird and wonderful tools such as remote sensors.”
The tool aims to be the first holistic source for residential and commercial tenants and real estate buyers and developers to access “comprehensive urban data and analysis in relation to any given London neighbourhood”.
The engine transforms publicly available and propriety-sourced quantitative and qualitative data and analyses it with proprietary statistical techniques to provide assessments of urban locations.
“The data sources we use to analyse these objective measure are all data sources that are mandated by various government bodies throughout Europe,” says Adjaye.
“So we know the vast majority of OECD cities have this data available and there isn’t a blockade to expansion.
“It just needs a lot of analysing and a lot of computing power. So the more people we have, the quicker it can be done.”
Walulel will be pitching to the judges at EG’s Tech Talk Academy on 15 November and if it wins some or all of the £150,000 up for grabs, it plans to split the investment with the bulk being invested on hiring two additional quantitative analysts and a targeted marketing strategy.
As to what Adjaye hopes he will get across to the judges at the event, he says it comes down to two things: to showcase what Walulel can do and to show the wide spectrum of needs that the engine can meet.
PI LABS SAYS:
“Walulel’s product proposition is very unique and has reached second prototype stage after 100 hours of interviews with target customers.
“The proposition is compelling because Walulel’s team has the right experience and background to execute on its plan.
“The team comprises of data scientists, GIS analysts, web development engineers, urban development researchers and research directors.”
Click here to listen to interviews with all six of the TechTalk Academy finalists in a bonus episode of the TechTalk Radio.
Click here to find out how to secure a ticket to the live pitch event on 15 November.
To send feedback, e-mail emily.wright@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmilyW_9 or @estatesgazette
