REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
PRnewswire | April 26, 2023
Today, ZestyAI, the leading provider of climate and property risk analytics solutions powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), announced that severe convective storms have joined the growing list of perils addressed by the company's risk analytics platform. Together, ZestyAI's new Z-WIND and next-generation Z-HAIL models provide a comprehensive solution for severe convective storms — the fastest growing and most costly secondary peril insurers face with nearly $22 billion in damage reported in 2022 alone.
"Insurers continue to grapple with skyrocketing losses brought on by traditional stochastic models that provide inadequate risk assessment for severe convective storms," said Kumar Dhuvur, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of ZestyAI. "That leaves carriers struggling to explain claims when they occur, often falling back to methodology that focuses exclusively on individual large storms. Using a single event to explain losses is like blaming a single candy bar when a tooth develops a cavity."
ZestyAI's Z-HAIL and Z-WIND models are rooted in scientific research, including a study just released by ZestyAI and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), which shows claim frequency is affected by property-level characteristics, accumulated roof damage from previous storms, and potential exposure to future hail events. Traditional stochastic models don't account for the relationship between weather and the structure itself, and they also have many shortcomings with respect to data sources - records don't provide full geographic coverage and only consider storms reported to have hailstones over one inch. These omissions in both property-specific and climate data result in predictions that are wildly off actuals.
ZestyAI's models are unique in that they intersect decades of historical climatology data with property-specific features for unparalleled accuracy in risk assessment. To do this, ZestyAI taps into the immense computing power of the cloud and leverages the latest techniques of AI and machine learning. Using its proprietary Digital Roof™ technology, ZestyAI is able to precisely model the vulnerability of every property in North America to hail and wind based on their specific characteristics, such as roof complexity, quality, and building materials, among others.
These vast amounts of data are then synthesized into two scores, Claim Frequency and Claim Severity, so insurers have an accurate assessment of the expected claim frequency for each property as well as an accurate understanding of how serious a future claim may be.
Z-HAIL and Z-WIND are the first AI models to give carriers hail and wind risk assessment that can be used in both underwriting and rating at the time of quote. Using insights into a roof's susceptibility to severe convective storms and the potential severity of those claims, insurers can accurately segment properties by risk level.
ZestyAI's new models build on the market-leading success of the company's wildfire assessment product, Z-FIRE™, which has been a key piece in addressing wildfire risk in Western states of the U.S. With these additional climate risk products, ZestyAI now addresses at least one peril for every home and business in North America.
About ZestyAI
ZestyAI offers insurers and real estate companies access to precise intelligence about every property in North America. The company uses AI, including computer vision, to build a digital twin for every building across the country, encompassing 200 billion property insights accounting for all details that could impact a property's value and associated risks, including the potential impact of natural disasters. Visit zesty.ai for more information.
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BROKERAGE, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Businesswire | April 20, 2023
Lessen, the premier tech-enabled, end-to-end solution for outsourced real estate property services, announced today a strategic acquisition of Blue Skyre IBE, a global facilities management solutions provider. This acquisition allows Lessen to extend its offerings in facilities management and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) solutions, as it continues to pursue its vision of bringing unparalleled operational excellence and efficiency, enhanced services and advanced technology to commercial and residential real estate—all under the direction of a single, unified platform.
Blue Skyre IBE Chief Executive Officer Maureen Ehrenberg and Chief Strategy & Product Officer Colette Temmink will join the Lessen leadership team. Ehrenberg is now president of Lessen’s commercial division, which was formerly the commercial division of SMS Assist, acquired by Lessen in January 2023.
Formerly CEO of Blue Skyre IBE, as well as a co-founder, Ehrenberg is an internationally recognized real estate industry business leader, with more than 35 years of experience in business process transformation, strategic positioning and operations of large, complex portfolios. Before co-founding BSI, she was the Global Head of Strategic Real Estate Operations for WeWork. Her previous experience also includes being International Director and Global President of JLL Integrated Facilities Management Services; Global Head of Integrated Facility Management at CBRE, and Executive Vice President of Grubb & Ellis Company and President and CEO of Grubb and Ellis Management Services, Inc. Ehrenberg was named to the Woman of Influence Hall of Fame by Real Estate Forum/Globe St.
Temmink is Chief Operating Officer of the commercial division.
"This acquisition advances our goal of providing a game-changing, tech-enabled service model for the entire real estate ecosystem,” said Jay McKee, CEO of Lessen. “Lessen and Blue Skyre share a vision of leveraging technology to help shape the future of real estate for a better world, solving pain points, and replacing complexity with transparency and operational efficiency backed by data-driven insights. With this most recent acquisition, Lessen is uniquely positioned to transform commercial and residential real estate to the benefit of all the stakeholders.”
Added McKee, “I’m thrilled to welcome Maureen and Colette to the Lessen family. Their experience, industry track record and expertise will be invaluable as we continue to broaden our reach into commercial facilities management.”
As president of Lessen's SMS Assist Commercial Division, Ehrenberg will drive business strategy and manage overall resources, partnerships, and operations to provide the most advanced and innovative integrated facilities management operating platform for commercial properties. Ehrenberg is focused on growing the enterprise client space, creating additional value, operational advances and savings for existing customers and bringing frictionless, fluid and ESG-focused operating solutions to the market, challenging the status quo.
“Leading Lessen’s commercial business division is an incredible opportunity to drive breakthrough innovation in facilities management,” said Ehrenberg. “The market is calling for a new business model for facilities management solutions; clients seek comprehensive data integration, real-time performance management, portfolio resiliency, service excellence and operationalizing ESG—all of which Lessen delivers through its advanced, integrated digital operating platform.”
As Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Division, Temmink is responsible for leading service delivery and operational excellence in the day-to-day support of clients.
Most recently Chief Strategy & Product Officer at Blue Skyre IBE, Temmink has also served as Senior Vice President and Chief Administration Officer at Apollo Education Group and held global real estate executive roles at Cushman & Wakefield, Oracle and Boeing. She is a renowned speaker and thought leader on corporate real estate, facilities management, ESG and PropTech. Temmink is the co-chair of the International Facilities Management (IFMA) ITC, a top-rated faculty for the MCR Capstone CoreNet course and serves as an editorial board member for the Corporate Real Estate Journal.
“Facilities management has been going through a transformation and Lessen has been at the forefront of this change,” said Temmink. “Delivering value, quality, predictive and efficient services to clients while providing real-time business insights is critical. Lessen’s dynamic approach to strategic integrated facilities management is exactly what the industry requires today.”
About Lessen
Lessen, together with SMS Assist, is the world class, tech-enabled, end-to-end property service provider transforming how commercial and residential real estate services are delivered and managed at scale. Our technology platform provides data-driven insights that unlock key growth opportunities for the entire real estate ecosystem—including investors, owners, managers, and service providers. Lessen enables local field managers to deploy and oversee a network of vetted, qualified vendors acting as one unit across distributed property portfolios—serving a national footprint of more than 1 million properties and completing more than 2.5 million work orders annually across an expanding range of services. Lessen, Inc. is a venture-backed, privately held company with offices in Scottsdale and Chicago. To learn more, visit Lessen.com and smsassist.com.
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
PRnewswire | April 17, 2023
Global X ETFs, the New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), today announced the launch of the Global X PropTech ETF (PTEC). This fund, which provides exposure to companies positioned to benefit from innovations in property technology, is Global X's latest addition to its growing suite of thematic-based funds.
The global real estate market comprises over $325 trillion in assets.i, and the opportunity for disruptive technology in this market is massive. From property management software to internet-of-things-based property monitoring to virtual reality tours, there is no shortage of new tools emerging for sellers and homeowners alike. By providing exposure to the companies that are positioned to benefit from the technology that optimizes the way people buy, sell, rent, design, construct, manage, and research and market residential and commercial properties, PTEC can help enable investors to capitalize on this growth.
"The process of both finding and maintaining a home is becoming increasingly reliant on cutting-edge technologies and real estate digitization," said Pedro Palandrani, Director of Research at Global X ETFs. "With the launch of PTEC, Global X is leveraging its expertise in thematic investing to offer investors exposure to companies investing in the technology that should meet the needs of this vast, addressable market."
The Global X PropTech ETF (PTEC) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Global X PropTech Index. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.50%.
About Global X ETFs
Global X ETFs was founded in 2008. For more than a decade, our mission has been empowering investors with unexplored and intelligent solutions. Our product lineup features over 100 ETF strategies and over $38 billion in assets under management.ii While we are widely recognized for our Thematic Growth, Income, Commodity and International Access ETFs, we also offer Core, Risk Management, Digital Asset, and other solutions to suit a range of investment objectives. Explore our ETFs, research and insights, and more at www.globalxetfs.com.
Global X is a member of Mirae Asset Financial Group, a global leader in financial services, with more than $480 billion in assets under management worldwide.iii Mirae Asset has an extensive global ETF platform ranging across the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Europe, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam with over $80 billion in assets under management.
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