Glorax Group

Experts from Glorax Infotech (part of Andrei Birzhin’s Glorax Group) have analyzed Russian PropTech market and concluded that the volume of investment in promising startups for this industry will increase at least 2 times in the coming year. Following the results of 2020 the investments in new technologies for the real estate market can reach RUB 1.5 billion. By comparison, last year investments of specialized funds and developers in Russian PropTech startups exceeded RUB 700 million. The bulk of 2019 investments in Russia came from just two deals, Sdelano and Cherdak companies. Besides, only one exit was made — Occipital Corporation withdrew from GeoCV, the amount of the deal was $7 million.

So far, more than half of PropTech market structure in Russia is marketplaces for buying and renting real estate or providing services in real estate or construction segments. Significant part is occupied by companies in the field of design and construction (Apis-Cor, TraceAir), as well as startups for data evaluation and analysis and collective investments (Aktivo, Geointellect, Habidatum) and companies in the field of ready-made objects management (Wiren Board, Throne).

There is a strong interest in Big Data and AI startups on the Russian market, but there is no clear leader yet. The winner in this race will be the one who creates the most convenient algorithms for analyzing large data, for example, to simplify the interaction of participants in the marketplaces.

In addition, the impact of the pandemic and the development of remote collaboration between companies and customers due to the new requirements for social distancing stimulate the PropTech market towards new segments and niches. This is happening in all segments of the real estate lifecycle, from design and construction to sales and management.

“As there are no one-size-fits-all solutions on the market, this opens up many opportunities for the development of start-ups. This year and next year we will see steady growth in the PropTech industry. Those early investors who will lay the foundation for platforms for interaction between market participants, for creating one-size-fits-all solutions, will be able to take a leading position on the market. We launched the Glorax Infotech accelerator to help the most promising start-ups successfully enter the market and contribute to the digitalization of the real estate market,” said Andrey Birzhin, Head of the Glorax Group, and Director of the Glorax Infotech accelerator.

So far, the volume of investment in Russian PropTech is less than 1% of the global and 1.8% of the European. By comparison, according to PropTech1 Ventures, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of investment in PropTech technology in Europe is 45%. While EUR 77 million were invested in European PropTech startups in 2014, the amount of investment money on the market has grown to almost EUR 500 million for the following 5 years (a surge of 550%).

In June, the Quadro accelerator of Glorax Infotech (belonging to Glorax Group), as part of the first startup selection, is launching pilot projects with founders of ReRooms, a housing product/service marketplace, and Realty Cloud, an online real estate business service. After assessing the results of their business models testing, a decision will be made on investing and further scaling.

Glorax Infotech’s accelerator was designed to search for startups offering innovative solutions for real estate, development, and infrastructure facilities. By the end of 2020, they will have received RUB 1Bln.

In May, the first selection with 80 startups from 11 Russian cities was completed. Following its results, investors chose the ReRooms and Realty Cloud projects and invited their founders to implement pilots, some of them at Glorax Development’s facilities.

Preliminary expert assessment showed that these startups meet current market demands and can become part of the technological ecosystem. The pilots will last 3 months. During this time, they will be tested in several areas at once, allowing to assess the relevance of their business models and options for further scaling.

“As part of the first acceleration selection, we have analyzed many projects aimed at digitizing various processes in the real estate market. We are currently ready to launch pilot projects with 2 of the most interesting startups. These projects are in line with new trends that have become especially relevant in the pandemic and post-pandemic context and have every chance to make a breakthrough by changing usual business practices in our conservative real estate market. We are also developing our acceleration program and will soon announce new pilot projects,” says Andrey Birzhin, founder of Glorax Group and head of the Glorax Infotech accelerator.

ReRooms online service (a Skolkovo resident) is a platform allowing to order a custom design project, repair, and buy all materials and furniture in one place. Over 5,000 designs and repairs have already been completed with the help of the service, and 500+ suppliers from all product categories are present on its marketplace. The founders, Dmitry Borisov and Yuri Goldberg, have 10+ years of experience in their own investment businesses.

Realty Cloud online service allows to check real estate for clean title and ensures transaction security. The service checks property and owners data in open sources and automatically obtains a result and conclusion on the security of a planned transaction. If minor risks are discovered, it offers ways to mitigate them. The service founders, Bulat Fazleev, Alexander Lazarev, and Radik Sharipov, have extensive experience in real estate and IT project implementation.

Applications for participation in the Quadro accelerator can be submitted at glorax.io until mid-December 2020.

Today, the first qualifying stage of the Quadro accelerator (launched in March as part of the Glorax Infotech direction), which focuses on finding promising IT solutions in real estate, development and infrastructure, has completed. Over 2.5 months the accelerator received more than 80 applications from young and promising teams.

Analysts and experts from Glorax Infotech selected startups and invited the best teams to the next stage. A meeting of startup representatives with investors and Quadro accelerator experts will be held on May 21-22.

Analysts noted that among the startups reviewed, the majority of IT products are aimed at automating processes and improving the level of service when interacting with customers, while there are quite a few development projects involving the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and Big Data.

“We see a global problem in the fact that both the Russian and global real estate markets are not digitized and standardized, which entails the appearance of fraudulent transactions, difficulties with international transactions, and the inability to conduct transactions quickly and remotely. That is why the real estate market is in urgent need of innovative solutions,” commented Andrei Birzhin, head of the accelerator and founder of the investment group Glorax Group.

In the current economic realities in the near future IT solutions for online demonstrations and online real estate sales will be in special demand. Analysts of Glorax Infotech note that several startups with interesting offers in this segment have passed the next qualifying round. Also interesting are services that increase the value of the product and allow developers to offer not just apartments, but a ready-made full-fledged space for living – here the tools for creating a “smart home”, a full repair cycle and its customization for the client, internal security, etc. are relevant.

In addition to the service and client parts, there is a large layer of the internal work of the development company, which is also in urgent need of automation and robotization, which is why the services of BIM-modeling of buildings, services for quality control of work performed and other similar solutions are interesting. Analysts are sure that services offering an uber-model in construction – a single platform for interaction between the developer and the final performer, which allows to digitize all processes and guarantee the quality of services provided – will be in great demand.

Acceptance of applications for participation in the Quadro accelerator continues at glorax.io  and will last until mid-December 2020.

Glorax Infotech accelerator has launched its 1^st admission of real estate and development projects informatization, with 45 projects currently under consideration. Applications are admitted until May 15, 2020. Projects passing the accelerator’s contest will receive both investments and the opportunity to implement their developments on investor sites.

By the end of 2020, Glorax Infotech (a subsidiary of Glorax Group) is planning to carry out 3 more admissions of Proptech (Property Technologies) startups and invest up to RUB 1 bln in the most promising projects. Financing will be as follows: 75% investments from Glorax Group and 25% from institutional/private investors. To date, the company has invested RUB 45 mln in innovative startups.

Priority project areas are real estate and development, infrastructure facilities, asset management in residential/commercial property, legal support, operational business process optimization, neural networks, and AI research.

Glorax Infotech is considering projects with innovative solutions at the MVP stage and with a ready business plan. Most of the accelerator activities will run online, so teams from across Russia and the CIS can join. Legal entity status is optional.

The accelerator experts are Andrey Birzhin (the founder of Glorax Group), CEO Alexander Andrianov, Martin Gregersen (head of N&K Spedition logistics company), and entrepreneur Andrey Yenin. They will accompany the projects end-to-end – from improving technological solution development and launching sales to supporting international market development and entry.

“The Russian real estate market is still quite conservative, and its players are cautious about Proptech projects. We believe that the time has come to change real estate business practices, so this year we have decided to focus on investing in new ideas. We have the expertise, connections, and capabilities to test technological solutions in tangible real estate. By joining forces with developers, we can turn any, even the most daring, idea into a working business,” says Andrey Birzhin.

CNews portal publication: https://www.cnews.ru/news/line/2020-04-22_akselerator_glorax_group_provedet

The Glorax Group has launched the Quadro Accelerator, a program for the development of IT startups and blockchain technologies in real estate and development, as part of the high-tech direction of Glorax.Infotech. The volume of planned investments is 1 billion rubles, which is a record amount for this segment.

About 75% of the investment volume is made up of Glorax Group’s own funds, another 20% is provided by institutional investors and partners of the Group. The remaining 5% is the funds of free market investors. At this stage, any interested investor can join the acceleration program.

The Quadro team includes major players in the Russian real estate, retail and IT markets as mentors, including Lamoda CEO Florian Jansen, N&K Spedition AS CEO Martin Gregersen, Glorax Group CEO Alexander Andrianov. Head of the accelerator is Andrei Birzhin, a founder of the investment Glorax Group, whose priority is the development business. Glorax Development is a leading player in the real estate market of St. Petersburg and one of the TOP-5 developers of the “Northern” capital.

“The Russian and global real estate markets are sorely lacking innovative solutions that will help optimize the construction and project management process, reduce the human factor and, of course, improve the consumer properties of the product. Special attention should be paid to the real estate purchase and sale segment, as it is necessary to strengthen the security of transactions and speed up the processes. We are ready to provide promising startups with financial assistance, business contacts, expertise and the possibility of implement services at real construction sites. We also plan to invite accelerator experts for specific tasks after the launch of the project,” comments Andrei Birzhin.

“Project financing is just the beginning. The next step is management. At this stage, we will help build the main business processes, from finance to advertising and HR, as well as adapt the product to market realities. It is not without reason that we have gathered such outstanding mentors into our team – promising startups will have the opportunity to work out their solutions and get advice from Quadro experts,” commented Alexander Andrianov, CEO of the Glorax Group, an expert at Quadro accelerator.

Acceptance of the first applications has already started on the website www.glorax.io. The collection of applications for participation in the accelerator will last until mid-December 2020. Teams will go through an absentee qualifying round and then will be able to present their startups at a face-to-face meeting with accelerator experts. During the year, 4 in-person qualifying rounds will be held.

On December 17, Moscow hosted an annual conference on the introduction of blockchain technologies in companies from different business fields. The event was organized by Waves Enterprise. A group of IT-developers, analysts and marketers of Glorax.IO (a part of the Glorax Group of Andrei Birzhin) attended this major event.

The conference discussed the most important topics for the era of the industry – the introduction of blockchain and digital technologies in the manufacturing sector, the use of blockchain in the banking sector, a workshop on the use of blockchain and integration with existing IT architectures. Representatives of Gazpromneft, VTB, S7 and other leading Russian companies shared their experience with the participants.

At a special section on how to overcome key barriers to the spread of blockchain technologies in Russia, Glorax.IO experts expressed their own opinions about building business processes in companies for the successful implementation of blockchain.

Glorax.IO is a technological innovation direction of the Glorax Group. In 2017, the company introduced its new software product – a cloud service with an integrated CRM system for the fitness industry. Technical experts and programmers of Glorax.IO are constantly improving their knowledge by attending all major events in the field of innovation and new technologies.

On November 21-24, the largest business forum and exhibition of innovations in the field of fitness and wellness industry Global Fitness Evolution took place in the territory of the Skolkovo Technopark. Glorax.IO (a part of Andrei Birzhin’s Glorax Group) presented at the exhibition its innovative software product for fitness centers and sports studios – a cloud service with FitBase CRM-system built-in.

The best startups of 2019 took part in this large-scale event, various novelties in the industry were presented – equipment, services and IT products, companies presented ready-made solutions and concepts for the progressive business development.

“The Glorax.IO software product takes root in the market of modern fitness and becomes more and more popular among progressive managers and business owners. We are constantly developing and supplementing our product with new features and capabilities following the requirements of a rapidly developing industry. Participation in such events allows us to demonstrate the product to modern companies and offer them a more technological solution for managing a fitness club or sports studio,” – commented Alexander Andrianov, CEO of Glorax Group.

FitBase program was created by Glorax.IO developers in 2017 and offers its customers a complex turnkey solution: maintaining a customer base, marketing and sales tools, analytical reports, integration with external systems. The advantage of the program is its simplicity and functionality – installation in 15 minutes, does not require a server, works from any browser.

On November 6-8, the 17th Russian Fitness Week MIOFF-2019 takes place at the Expocenter in Moscow. Company Glorax.IO (a part of the Glorax Group) introduced its innovative product for the fitness industry – a cloud service for automating the work of FitBase fitness clubs.

The Glorax.IO development team has created a simple and functional product that offers an all-in-one solution for automating fitness clubs: maintaining a customer base, marketing and sales tools, schedule synchronization with the website, analytics and reports, integration with external systems.

The MIOFF-2019 exhibition is one of the most significant events in the wellness and sports industry, where more than 250 well-known brands are represented, famous coaches, speakers, business owners and management teams of world companies are invited. In addition, the coworking area was organized on the territory of the exhibition, where panel discussions, hackathons, business games and briefings are held.

“Participation in such events allows us to share experience between companies, be in trend of advanced solutions and technologies in business, show our own innovative product to a wide audience of partners, colleagues and clients. The new direction of the Glorax.IO company is gradually developing and gaining more and more customers, which proves the quality of our development,” – commented Alexander Andrianov, CEO of Glorax Group.

A group of experts and IT developers of the Glorax.IO took part in the 2019 World Blockchain Summit (Blockchain Summit 2019), which took place on August 20 in Singapore. This is an important event for the digital economy, which was attended by leading representatives of business, IT and innovative software.

A rich program of the one-day conference included statements from 80 leading speakers who provided unique cases and presentations. The program also had lively discussions and the possibility of personal communication with the leaders of such giant companies as Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Cognizant, Cisco, EY, ConsenSys, KPMG, Accenture, Dell and many others.

Glorax.IO experts noted that in order to understand the staged implementation of blockchain technologies in various fields of business and the patterns of processes in world practice, it is very valuable to hear the real stories of Western companies, thereby expanding the knowledge horizon in the field of digital economy.

Glorax.IO focuses on the latest trends in the IT sector, striving to be a trend in the modern digital economy. The direction of Glorax.IO (a part of Andrei Birzhin’s Glorax Group) is developing promising projects in the sphere of information technologies and implementing high-tech solutions that can improve services and facilitate the development of new digital products.

The IT development team Glorax.IO participates in the large-scale digital IT and Security Forum (ITSF). This is the largest blockchain event in the field of digital economy and cyber security held in Kazan, where more than 1,000 experts from all over Russia have gathered.

This year the main topic of the forum was the digital transformation of business. Today we are on the verge of a fourth industrial revolution, which will affect all areas of business in the global market – from personnel to trade. Innovative solutions in the field of IT simplify all business processes in an organization: it provides the necessary analytics for the management, reduces the labor costs for personnel to perform tasks, and ensures business flexibility in accordance with market realities. At the forum Glorax.IO experts together with the best business experts in the field of IT and information security discussed key issues on this topic and possible ways of development of the sector.

Glorax.IO focuses on the latest trends in the field of IT, strives to be the trend of the modern digital economy. The direction of Glorax.IO (a part of Andrei Birzhin’s Glorax Group) focuses on the development of promising projects in the field of information technology and the implementation of high-tech solutions that can improve services and contribute to the development of new digital products.

The expert group Glorax.IO, consisting of analysts, IT developers and marketers, held a working meeting with representatives of the innovation center “Skolkovo”, where they discussed the development and launch of promising blockchain and IT startups in various areas.

The main topic of the negotiations was joint work on projects in the field of development, industry and services, and a number of decisions on further cooperation were developed in the field of technological entrepreneurship and identifying promising innovative projects. Also during the meeting, the participants shared an expert assessment of the development of high-tech products and blockchain platforms for various sectors of the economy, taking into account global trends and international practice.

“The number of projects implemented in the digital economy is growing every year. Glorax Group is interested in developing and integrating the latest high-tech solutions, improving its own services and developing new products. There are thousands of start-ups and innovative solutions in Russia, and the task of our Glorax.IO direction is to select the best ideas and give them life,” – says Alexander Andrianov, the general director of the Glorax Group.

Glorax.IO is a division focused on searching and implementing the latest solutions in the field of high technologies, using cloud solutions in the development of consumer innovation and business services. Our team has all the necessary groundwork to start promising projects, so we are always ready to consider new ideas in the field of blockchain technologies.

As a part of the strategy of finding forward-looking high-tech solutions, the Glorax.IO expert group of analysts, IT-developers and marketers, took part in the master-class “Blockchain in China, investments and trends”. At this meeting, the level and focus of startups offered by Russian developers, and their relevance to Chinese investors, were analyzed.

The active development of the blockchain in China allows us to focus on this market as the most indicative. Investors from the PRC are primarily interested in developments applicable to the real sectors of the economy, as well as blockchain platforms that allow to systematize domestic and international trade.

Representatives of Glorax.IO together with blockchain industry professionals, entrepreneurs and representatives of consulting companies shared their own analytics and discussed scenarios for the commercial use of the high-tech products and their effects on the development of the real sector of economy. The most promising sectors for the implementation of innovative developments were determined as a result of the meeting.

As part of a strategy of finding promising solutions in the field of high-tech products and IT-development, Glorax.IO experts took part in the international forum CryptoExpo.Moscow, which bring together the leading experts in the world of ICO, cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.

At the forum, special attention was paid to the standardization of blockchain investments and the use of blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence in the banking sector. According to experts, the introduction of high-tech solutions will allow to process client requests and banking operations much faster, as well as reduce administrative costs. As a result, the use of blockchain technologies can improve the efficiency of the entire banking system.

A separate division of Glorax.IO was created on the basis of Glorax Group, specializing in searching high-tech start-ups and specialists to work on innovative projects. The team has all the necessary resources and groundwork to implement promising ideas in the field of blockchain technologies and to bring a finished project to the market, so we are always ready to consider proposals in this area.

The expert group Glorax.IO took part in the “Blockchain Conference Seattle 2018”. The event brought together professionals of the financial sector, venture capital market, high-tech products and IT-developments.

The main theme of the reports was the evolution of the new digital space, including the use of the blockchain outside the cryptocurrency market. Representatives of global corporations shared their experience in developing complex blockchain applications for the business sector and the financial market. In the framework of discussion panels, special attention was paid to dozens of startups that created blockchain-based platforms for various purposes. Together with other conference participants, Glorax.IO experts noted that every year investments in the blockchain sector are growing not only from individuals and businesses, but also from governments that use this technology to simplify various aspects of management.

The key tasks of the Glorax Group division are to attract specialists to work on innovative projects and search for promising IT developments that can be successfully implemented into high-tech solutions. Our team has all necessary experience to give a start to promising projects, so we are always ready to consider new ideas in the field of blockchain technologies.

The annual Fintech Week: New York 2018 conference is held in New York from July 31 to August 2. Glorax Group team, which is engaged in the search for the most interesting and promising solutions in the field of high-tech products and IT-development, together with industry experts discuss the most urgent issues of finteh and block technology technologies.

Subjects of reports and discussion panels are devoted to the blocking economy and investments in this industry. Companies will share real scenarios of commercial application of finteh-developments. Also at the conference will discuss the legal problems of regulation of this sphere, the problems of information security, the economic impact of blocking technology on major financial markets and the main trends of the finteh ecosystem.

The conference is attended by investors, representatives of private and public corporations, banks, consulting companies, as well as those who present their start-ups and innovative developments.

Analysts, marketers and IT developers of Glorax Hi-tech team, participates in the business breakfast “CDO vs CIO: the role in corporate innovation”, organized by the Foundation for the Development of Internet Initiatives (FII).

Experts Glorax.IO together with experts in the field of digital transformation, representatives of business and state corporations will discuss the need for managers of a fundamentally different type – Chief Digital Officer or Chief Information Officer, as well as their role in corporate innovations. Within the framework of the panel discussion, the issues of transformations and implementation of the latest developments in Russian business will also be raised, how they pass, what changes CDOs and CIOs make in the company and what tools they use.

The goal of the business breakfast is to find a systematic vision of the CDO and CIO positions and discuss their role on case studies of leading companies.

From May 21 to May 25, the Moscow Technopark Skolkovo hosts a week of blocking technologies and crypto-currencies, which unites various types of events on one site. One of the main tasks of the Glorax Group is to find the most interesting and promising solutions in the field of high-tech products and IT-development.

Glorax Group has created a separate division in which marketers, IT developers and analysts search for and implement the latest high-tech solutions. As part of this strategy, Glorax Group representatives take part in the Russian Blockchain Week 2018. The event hosts conferences and panel discussions about the future of blocking technology in the financial industry. The main topics: investment and trading, fintech, ICO, mining and equipment. Also, their development is represented by block-start-ups.

The main task of the division of Glorax Group is to find the most promising developments and implement them, implement high-tech solutions that can improve services and contribute to the development of new digital products.

Glorax group activates the search and attraction of specialists to work on innovative projects.

Glorax has formed a working group, which included IT-developers, marketers and analysts of the group, whose task is to find the most promising high-tech products for accelerations, as well as the development of their own hardware and software solutions. Priority industries for the analysis of needs identified real estate, utilities, logistics and trade, hotel and tourism business. A significant place in the development strategy is given to the introduction of high technology in the manufacturing sector.

In addition to attracting specialists with experience in leading technology companies, the group will develop cooperation with leading universities, innovative scientific and technological centers and clusters to attract young prospective specialists.

“Our task is to transform ideas into ready-made commercial technologies.We have all the necessary developments to give a start to promising undertakings.Today we are ready to attract specialists with experience, achievements and ideas at all levels, from technical development and ending with the management of promising projects” the head of Glorax Group Andrey Birzhin said.