Scottsdale land brokerage invests $2M in PropTech firm, adds homebuilder platform
By Angela Gonzales – Senior Reporter – BizJournals
July 21, 2022, 05:00am MS
Land Advisors Organization is bringing a new property technology tool to Arizona that’s designed to help homebuilders and developers simplify the project process and streamline operations.
The Scottsdale-based land broker has invested $2 million into New Hope, Pennsylvania-based Cecilian Partners and is adding the technology platform to its services.
The platform was designed to streamline the cumbersome operational aspects of community development by integrating community and buyer data and simplifying the homebuying experience. The specialized technology helps builders and developers with real-time lot and inventory management using an anti-repetition algorithm, said Philip Worland, co-founder and chief strategy officer for Cecilian Partners.
Since the proptech firm’s founding in 2019, the company has more than 150,000 lots under management in more than 110 communities in Phoenix, Orlando, Tampa, Dallas, Houston, and Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Land Advisors works with at least 80% of master-planned community developers, including in many of the same markets where Cecilian Partners has a presence.
Through the partnership, Land Advisors will make the tool available to developers of master-planned communities in these and its other markets, said Greg Vogel, founder and CEO of Land Advisors.
The technology platform automates and replaces the laborious processes that have burdened community developers and homebuilders for decades — maybe even centuries — by digitizing the entire system, he said.
According to the Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation, more than $32 billion was invested in proptech companies in 2021. A record $4 billion of venture capital equity funding was invested in the sector in the first quarter of 2022 alone, according to investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
That said, plans call for kicking off a Series A fundraiser later this year or early next year, said John Cecilian, co-founder of Cecilian Partners.
Vogel said he has known Cecilian’s mother, Kathy Cecilian, for decades through Urban Land Institute. When he saw her son forming this proptech firm, he took notice.
“This takes us to a new level,” Vogel said.
