Miami-based real estate tech startup Gridics just raised a $1.1 million round of seed funding, including from developer Avra Jain.
Dune Road Capital led the round, which also included John Dyett, managing director of Salem Partners, and Robert Kall, CEO and co-founder of Cien.ai, the company announced on Thursday. Jain is active in the city of Miami, where she owns the Vagabond and the historic Miami River Inn and plans to develop the Bayside Motor Inn.
Gridics, which stands for Grid Analytics, has raised more than $2 million since it was founded in 2015. The data and software company said its applications allow users to visualize real estate data and streamline the development plan approval process.
The latest round of funding will go toward its Zonar.City app, which automates the development feasibility analysis and simplifies planning and zoning processes by digitizing and automating zoning codes. Cities and developers can check development plans against site-specific zoning requirements, making the approval process more efficient, Gridics said.
The startup is also developing a “market intelligence” app, which lets members of the Miami Association of Realtors conduct hyper-local analysis. Gridics, which has signed up about 1,000 Miami agents on the beta launch, plans to open it up to other Realtor associations.
At The Real Deal’s Broward County Real Estate Showcase & Forum on Thursday, a panel of real estate tech professionals said South Florida developers, brokers and investors are slowly embracing virtual reality tours, immersive online presentations and data collection applications. “The best brokers and developers are using data applications as a complement to their Rolodex and local knowledge they have curated over their professional career,” Reonomy CEO Richard Sarkis said. – Katherine Kallergis