• Greek proptech startup Protio has raised €2 million in pre-seed funding, with capital coming from international and Greek investment funds and Neogen Capital leading the round.
• Angel investor and co-founder of Google Maps Lars Rasmussen, Genesis Ventures and crowdinvesting platform Seedblink also participated in the round with twenty other angel investors from Greece, Germany, Switzerland and India.
• The latest funding helped Protio unveil its innovative apartment investment platform and a new service that the company says is here to change the real estate sector in Greece.
Founded in 2021, Protio has so far achieved continued growth, a team of 10 people and is looking forward to growing the next phase of the business, which includes a significant increase in its customer base.
For the CEO of Protio Antonios Fiorakis, the main mission of the startup is to find a solution to affordable housing, which is one of the growing problems in Europe.
“We were impressed when we realized that for every ten families looking for decent accommodation to rent, there was only one house available. After decades of urbanization, our cities have turned into concrete jungles of old, energy-inefficient apartments that remain exactly the same as they were 40 to 50 years ago. Inspired by the need to help improve our lives, finding a sustainable technological solution became a priority,” Fiorakis told The Recursive.
The real estate markets of South Eastern Europe share some common characteristics, in that the extremely high rate of owner-occupancy has created highly fragmented markets that are difficult to navigate.
Additionally, old buildings have not been rebuilt or renovated and are energy inefficient, Fiorakis says, adding that the transition process is complex and time-consuming, making it difficult for individuals to sell their property or to invest in apartments.
Investment in rental housing in Athens is estimated around 2.6 billion euros for 2021, while the total equivalent for other European capitals is estimated at 150 billion euros. At the same time, demand for sustainable, affordable and entry-level housing continues to grow in all European capitals, with a notable structural undersupply of housing.
The new Proptech business models
This is where Protio comes in: the apartment investment platform helps owners sell their property in a simple and hassle-free way and makes it easy for investors to earn income from an investment apartment.
For owners, the process is simple and does not involve any bureaucratic procedures. Thanks to the platform, they can request an offer to put their apartment up for sale. Using Protio’s technology, the proprietary algorithm evaluates all the information and informs the owner within 24 hours of the sale value. Following this step, a single visit to the property is enough and Protio takes care of the rest of the process.
“Qualified investors through our proptech platform simply select the transaction they prefer and Protio is responsible for coordinating the process. From the acquisition of the property, through the organization of the renovation and the coordination of property management, Protio prepares everything on behalf of the investor digitally. Following the renovation of the apartment, Protio can guarantee the investor’s rental income for the first year,” Fiorakis told The Recursive.
While Protio is currently focused on Athens, the Greek startup also believes that there is a big opportunity for cities with similar characteristics in Europe.
“We want to make real estate investing a seamless experience for everyone involved. For investors, sellers, tenants and agents. Markets lack information transparency and the sales process is fraught with friction, taking on average more than 90 days to finalize a transaction for sellers or first-time home buyers, not including the renovation and renovation process. tenant search. Fiorakis explains.
For people based in Romania Neogene capitalinvesting in Protio also turned out to be a great opportunity to enter the Greek market to start up ecosystem.
“This is a great opportunity for us to invest in a company that has a socio-economic footprint and holds great promise for the future of Athens and our cities around the world. Protio is our first investment in a Greek start-up and we are delighted to meet such a strong team who will offer an absolutely new future to the real estate sector”, Calin Fusu, Partner at Neogen Capital, said.
As Fiorakis points out, real estate has always been the preferred asset class for investing in Greece and the ownership rate has remained at around 75%, providing a major economic driver for its economy.
The rental market has shown strong growth in recent years, with residential rents in Athens increasing by 30.0% from 2017 to 2021 and continued growth in the first half of 2022.
All of this is also very exciting for Protio and for the further development of its products and services, Fiorakis added.
“It is clear that there is a strong tailwind for proptech services in developed markets and that new proptech business models are becoming increasingly asset-light. We therefore expect the market to mature with digital transformation and become simpler and more efficient. » concludes Fiorakis.
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