Recap with Cubicasa, 2016 is over! This has been an amazing year, for both CubiCasa and the whole real estate tech industry. Virtual reality isn’t any more a buzzword among others, instead of a proven case of adding value and engagement in the important decisions of buying and renting. In terms of technology and growth, Matterport has done great work in opening the new field.

Yet, in broader scale technology has one specific “known unknown” feature: many innovations don’t come from the established players. However, from those individuals pulling all-nighters in student dorms, garages, co-working spaces, etc – then publishing something new and relevant out of the blue.

In 2017, we will continue developing the Virtual Flythrough, now a simple demo but one day our flagship product.

What else we have done and learned so far?

CubiCasa started 2016 by experimenting with Airbnb hosts around the world, converting hand-drawn sketches into marketable floor plans. In internal study, our beloved early adopters gave us 86% positive rating on the output and the process. Moreover, we also noticed one specific hosts’ headache which floor plan will cure – more about this later.

We also experimented CAD floor plans and their relevance to professionals, and a measurement service for Matterport photographers. There is a niche and business potential, as in saving designers’ time and effort in the “boring part”, creating the basic model with walls, doors and windows. Even we have been the early adopters here, but now a bit wiser early adopters, continuing the development later.

The greatest progress started in September, when we launched the NYC On-Demand BETA. We are confident that if we can make it in Manhattan, offering all Manhattan residential properties as Virtual Flythroughs, we can make it everywhere. We also learned the important lesson: real estate is always local, and actual presence is required. Therefore we will establish stronger presence to NYC and London UK, in addition to existing customer base in Silicon Valley area and around US. It’s already a norm that Jarmo Lumpus and other our folks are always on the run.

And boy, haven’t we travelled! Inman Connect, The Next Web, MIPIM London, NYC Real Estate Tech Week, Launch Festival, Slush – just to name a few we have attended. Next year will include much more travelling and conferences than we’ve had so far, and we invite you to join with us to Inman Connect NYC and MIPIM Cannes to name few. Also, one of the greatest rewards was being mentioned among Global PropTech 100 most influential brands.

To sum up some of the actions we will take on 2017:

• Promoting Virtual Flythrough as the forthcoming flagship product
• A-round to boost product development and business in selected market areas
• Continue developing Image Recognition API and other AI & Computer vision solutions unique to real estate. New automation improves the ease of use.
• Entering UK market with RICS compliant products
• Unveiling a new offering for real estate portals, in all countries
• Continuing BETA experiments to test new product/market opportunities
• Going full speed ahead in NYC with Virtual Flythrough and On-Demand Floor Plan Service

That is everything for CubiCasa Recap 2016! Thank you, everyone, for an amazing year, wishing a happy and prosperous 2017!