Member Article

Google's first international investment into London-based PropTech start-up AskPorter

AskPorter has announced an investment from the Google Assistant Investments Program for the AI driven property management platform.

At its heart sits ‘Porter,’ a digital artificial intelligence assistant for agents, property managers, and landlords that eliminates mundane tasks & delivers fast, efficient customer service.

From one single platform, property & facilities managers, and landlords, can automate their workflows with AskPorter which over time learns and improves how they work in a completely customisable way. For tenants & occupants, Porter provides a 24/7 response accessible by text, voice & more providing them with a personal concierge.

As part of the investment, AskPorter will have access to support and resources from Google’s technical, product, and business development teams.

Tom Shrive, Founder & CEO of AskPorter said: “We’re delighted to have been selected as the Google Assistant Investment Program’s first international investment. This is a very positive reflection on our product, our opportunity and our team. It’s incredibly exciting to be able to work with the experts at Google to improve the AI & machine learning technology that powers Porter. We will be using the funds to attract more world-class talent into our team and build out product in preparation for our Series A early next year, for which we are seeing strong interest from investors.”

AskPorter also today announces the launch of its ‘Porter Pioneers’ programme, a by application group of fifteen property agencies & institutional landlords across Residential, Commercial & other specialist property sectors.

Lasting for six months beginning January 2019, the AskPorter technical & property team will work closely with these agencies & property managers and landlords in automating their unique workflows & challenges, covering anything & everything involved with world class asset management: from qualifying potential leads & issuing bespoke AST’s, to collecting service charge payments, reconciling invoices & dealing with no heating.

Curran McKay, CCO at AskPorter added: “We have had unprecedented demand with over 130 real estate companies from across the world wanting to use our platform. By staging our onboarding, ’‘Porter Pioneers’ will provide these fifteen clients with an unparalleled opportunity to transform their business in a low-cost, low-risk way. We will combine pioneering natural language processing & machine learning technology alongside a consultative approach, working closely over six months we will provide these companies with a state of the art AI property management platform.

“Providing end-to-end management in one platform, Porter Pioneers will shape the future of this industry.”

Jamie Euesden, AskPorter’s COO added: “Based on experience in front-line property and facilities management we understand the complexities involved in the day to day management of real estate. We’re really excited to be working with the Google Assistant team to deliver new ways to improve the relationship and decrease friction for landlords and their tenants, particularly through Google Home and other Assistant enabled devices.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Roseanna Lane .