TEL AVIV, ISRAEL–A routine appointment by a real estate technology firm — that of chief data scientist — will likely land the company on the radar of many potential clients and the industry at large. For the firm, Skyline AI, has tapped none other than Shay Bushinsky for the role. Bushinsky, together with Amir Ban, created an artificial intelligence program called Deep Junior, which eventually defeated the legendary chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Now Bushinsky will devote his energies to real estate technology, namely adding AI to the valuation process.
Connected to 130 different data sources — everything from real estate information to crime statistics and demographics and stock market fluctuations — Skyline AI can detect and exploit market anomalies, identify investment opportunities and discover untapped value creation possibilities, according to the company. The platform can also provide market data analysis and information on the best time to raise rents, renovate and sell.
To be sure the company is still in its early days. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Skyline AI has raised $3 million in seed funding. But it has an interesting bench of US clients already — private equity firms that are using the system to manage their portfolios, CEO and co-founder Guy Zipori tells GlobeSt.com.
Zipori declines to name the firms but he describes them as among the top private equity providers in the US. “We do not license the technology under our business model, but we do partner with these companies to help them make better decisions,” he says. A typical use might be a report on a particular asset along with predictions about its performance.
Zipori says he doesn't anticipate expanding the company's services to a broader group of clients. “We prefer working with a small group of the top real estate players.” He says if the platform is expanded to too many different clients it would lose the alpha. Instead, Skyline AI will go deeper with the customers it already has by becoming involved in more acquisitions, more asset classes and larger transactions.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
