The 21 most promising proptech startups of 2022, according to VCs

From left, VCs who invest in proptech companies and shared their favorite startups: Annie Case of Kleiner Perkins, Nima Wedlake of Thomvest Ventures, Chris Yip of RET Ventures, Merritt Hummer of Bain Capital, and Daniel Fetner of Alpaca. Kleiner Perkins; Thomvest Ventures; RET Ventures; Bain Capital Ventures; Alpaca; fonikum/Getty; Anna Kim/Insider

Jordan Pandy, Julie Bort, Robert Davis, Alex Nicoll, Kelsey Neubauer, and Dan Latu

September 19, 2022

Real-estate tech — more widely known as proptech — boomed in 2021. Startups of all stripes — from ones that help buyers and renters score homes or allow landlords to better manage properties to ones that support firms to construct and manage big buildings — attracted a record-high $32 billion.

But this year, interest rates spiked. Money became more expensive to borrow. Housing markets are slowing down. And layoffs at proptech companies have become all too common.

That makes it harder for such startups to find customers as well as to woo funding from VCs. We’ve covered the hottest proptech startups before, but the current economic environment makes it much more difficult to determine which ones stand the best chance at success.

To identify the startups that deserve the most attention right now, we polled a dozen venture capitalists who invest in proptech. We asked them to name companies — including at least one that isn’t in their portfolio — and explain why their picks are on track for success.

Estimated total funding for each startup is based on reports from Crunchbase unless otherwise specified. Some VCs identified in this list recommended multiple proptech startups.