Melbourne urban tech analytics platform Neighbourlytics has raised $1.3 million in a pre-Series A.
The round was led by the California VC ALIAVIA Ventureswhich goes backwards female founders enterprise and consumer technology companies, supported by LaunchVic’s angel sidecar fund, the Alice Anderson Fund.
The new capital brings the total raised by Neighborlytics to $3.5 million, with existing investors including Trawalla Group, Myer Foundation, Scale Investors and Portable following suit.
The capital is earmarked for new hires in product development and sales and marketing, as well as improved automation processes and advanced analytics models, including deeper evolution of metrics that capture social sustainability. The company was founded in 2018 by Lucinda Hartley and currently has 22 employees based in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Neighborlytics explains how people are using the built environment to help developers understand real estate data and make forecasts. The platform provides unique social and behavioral insights along with benchmark data to improve the return on investment (ROI) of developments and capital projects.
Co-CEO Jessica Christiansen-Frank said the Neighborlytics data is helping develop ensure the right rental mix to create more livable neighborhoods with up to 300% higher visitor numbers. The platform’s simple analytics accelerate project research up to 10x faster than traditional methods.
“Life has changed a lot in recent years and as a result there is currently a demand for lifestyle and behavior data like never before,” she said.
“It is no longer valid to look back at five-year-old census data, or rely on gut feelings, to understand what people want in an office building or shopping center or how they take care of their health and well-being. Behavioral big data is the missing piece of the intelligence puzzle for our customers.”
And they get it, with the number of Tier 1 property developers using the platform in Australia doubling to 80% by 2022. The insights from the platform have been used by more than 100 leading real estate developers in 12 countries.
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar has used Neighborlytics to plan around the legacy the stadiums and grounds built to host the event.
Neighborlytics is going beyond traditional datasets to tap into people’s daily digital footprints through anonymized mobile phone location data, public social media, ratings and reviews, and crowd-sourced map data.
Co-CEO Lucinda Hartley said that over the past four years, data analytics has been used to inform more $4.86 billion worth of asset management decisions.
“This shows a growing industry maturity to prioritize leaving behind a legacy of great people places, not just buildings,” she said.
“This capital raise is a launching pad as we lay the groundwork for global expansion. It is a recognition of the maturing of Neighborlytics as a company and the evolution of the real estate industry as a whole. We are excited to partner with a team of extraordinary investors as we continue to help our clients make better decisions that improve return on investment and community outcomes.”
ALIAVIA Ventures co-founder and general partner Marisa Warren said they are “super excited” to lead the investment in Neighborlytics to help accelerate global growth.
“We believe that Neighborlytics provides a new paradigm for the real estate and asset management industry by taking a real-time data-driven approach to real estate development and sustainability,” she said.
LaunchVic CEO Dr. Kate Cornick said: “LaunchVic is pleased to partner with ALIAVIA Ventures, Trawalla Group, Myer Foundation, Scale Investors and Portable to support Neighborlytics in their ext growth phase. We share a mission to take women-led startups to the next level and ensure that incredible founders like Jessica and Lucinda have access to the capital they need to grow and create jobs.”
