New Valley Ventures has bought Rechat, a lead-to-close fully-mobile technology dashboard for estate agents, in the latest in a growing list of proptech investments this year.
New Valley Ventures was set up by Vector Group and its affiliate company, residential broker Douglas Elliman, to seek opportunities in next-generation technologies in the property technology space, with a particular focus on start-ups committed to supporting rapid transformation of the real estate industry for the benefit of the agent experience. It is being led by managing director Dan Sachar and has already invested in Metaprop and Camber Creek, a venture capital firm whose portfolio includes start-ups such as Notarize, Curbio, Flex and Darwin Homes.
“We are witnessing a generational shift in how real estate professionals work, and with that comes a new set of expectations for innovation and experiences that provide ease, mobility and nimbleness. Our objective is to free agents to do what they do best, which is to sell real estate,” said Sachar.
Vector chief technology officer David Ballard added: “It is not just about us being innovators, it is about being able to identify emerging technologies early and benefit from them. In turn, we provide start-ups with invaluable intelligence from Douglas Elliman’s 7,000 agents across the United States.
“When we identify a service from an early stage business that we believe agents can benefit from, we are willing to invest in them, aligning our interests with those of our agents, while helping these companies to innovate at start-up speed.”
The Rechat application provides estate agents with a customer relationship management system to help organise client rosters, manage communications and prioritise responses, syncing with Google Mail and Outlook. It also allows for marketing automation for social media, e-mail blasts and digital and printed collateral materials.
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