About Realiste
The company's goal is to create super intelligence (smarter than any human, real estate agent, or analyst, with access to 10,000 times more data and covering 100 times more cities) in the real estate market. The idea is to provide this AI to users for free (open access to some features, full functionality to be provided to B2B partners), while earning revenue through B2B channels (commissions from sales, integrating AI into businesses). The business model resembles that of Google. Currently, Realiste's platform includes data for 114 cities worldwide, 20,000 annotated districts, 20 macroeconomic indicators, and in the UAE, there are 20 layers of data and cross-sections (rental ROI, prices, green area, forecasts, etc.), 15 ratings for over 200 developers and 700 projects. Every day, over 2 million ads pass through the Realiste engine. All this data is updated either daily or weekly (for macro data), and all of it is free, used by our AI to provide forecasts and recommendations to clients. Our products are currently used by developers and banks, and there are free products for users. Realiste currently holds the world's largest real estate database (excluding the United States).
Brief Development History I started betting on algorithms against human expertise in 2015 when I encountered the limitation of my investment analytics being confined to knowledge of just one district. Real estate agents were similarly restricted to one location (the same person could not provide accurate information about two different districts or two cities), and in 90% of cases, the expertise of real estate agents in investments was lacking. At that time, I had a real estate agency and was investing in land plots. Initially, like many others, it was a complex Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of variables. Then, with the help of developers, we transformed it into products. By 2019, we were putting all our efforts into training our first ML model.
We developed parallel models for different cities: New York (and 10 other cities in the US), Moscow, and Hong Kong as we traveled the world and studied the experiences of these locations.
From 2015 to 2020, we attempted to attract investments into this idea and were unsuccessful in securing VC investments anywhere (we pitched about 250 times, even multiple times to some because they forgot about us, and I pitched to one guy from the largest VC fund in the US three times in five years).
At the beginning of the pandemic, we returned from the US to Moscow and launched an open product in Moscow (users could find apartments in Moscow at 15% below market prices). This product attracted many users, and it was these users who invested money in the company.
A total of 60 angel users of the platform invested over 6 million dollars from 2020 to 2023 and continue to invest in the company. We came up with the idea of integrating AI into banks and developers in Russia, and we spent two years trying to do so. In two years, we integrated AI into various products in the 20 largest companies and earned only 10 million rubles (which wasn't worth the effort, of course). Meanwhile, users continued to use our platform and invest money in us.
Then the war in Ukraine happened, and we decided to leave for Saudi Arabia (because we always wanted to build an international business, and it was no longer possible to do so from Russia). We abandoned everything we had done in Russia (there wasn't much to leave behind, and integrating AI into banks and developers wasn't what a startup should be doing in Russia). At that moment, we were offered to sell 15% of the company in Dubai (where we had no initial plans to develop) for $700,000 and launch a product in Dubai. We launched the product in Dubai, came to adapt, and realized that Dubai was precisely the market where AI should be applied today. From October 2022 to October 2023, we sold 350 apartments in Dubai worth $130 million and earned $7 million in revenue in the first year. The company's valuation in Dubai was estimated at over $50 million by investors, and the 15% stake was worth more than $7.5 million. This investor is Maxim @kuchinmaksim (Telegram), who later joined the company and founded a department within the company to work with real estate agents (they can use our infrastructure and conduct transactions, generating $1.3 million in revenue in the first year).
Public track record is here :
https://deals.realiste.ai/ The local success in Dubai encouraged both current and new investors to open cities and reserve locations for themselves (if it worked so successfully in Dubai, it could work just as well in Berlin, Moscow, Jakarta, and so on). Currently, Realiste's models are deployed in 114 cities, SEED investments have been secured in 15 cities, transactions are taking place in 5 cities (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Bali), and in 2024, the plan is to secure SEED investments in 40 cities (ranging from $200,000 to $500,000), conduct transactions in 15 cities, and have models deployed
Current Business Metrics for the First Year of Operations in the UAE - Sales: Sold properties worth $121 million, primarily to Russian-speaking clients. It's important to note that the Russian-speaking market declined by 4-5 times from March 2023 onwards, but our sales remained at a steady level. If the market hadn't declined, we could have achieved sales four times greater. Unfortunately, we didn't have the chance to shift towards English-speaking clients in 2023, but we are targeting five languages for 2024 in the UAE.
- Revenue: Earned $7 million, reaching self-sufficiency in the UAE.
- Online Transactions: Achieved $5 million in sales without the involvement of real estate agents, purely through online transactions. AI helped with analysis, and the support team assisted clients with transactions. These sales were conducted remotely, with no real estate agents participating. This achievement is remarkable, as few believed it was possible. Thanks to having all data and expertise on the platform, the need for a real estate agent's expertise, especially in investments, was eliminated. This allowed us to close deals through customer support and remote sales. The margin for such a business is 63% after accounting for marketing and sales expenses.
- Additional Revenue: Generated an additional $1.3 million through a scheme where real estate agents utilize the platform and our infrastructure to close their deals. In this scheme, we pay real estate agents 91% of the commission, retaining 9% for ourselves.
Plans and Future Products
Currently, we provide API services and are beginning to offer White Label solutions. In Dubai, we are exploring the possibility of selling our developed AI strategies, although this is still in the discussion phase (we are already receiving interest from interested strategists). We plan to replicate the success we achieved in Dubai in several other locations in 2024, leveraging our experience, lack of competition, and significant market opportunities. We are also initiating collaborations with major companies for the integration of our AI (Artificial Intelligence as a Service, AIaaS). Our goal for 2024 is to increase revenue from $7 million to $35 million by expanding language groups and increasing the marketing budget. We have learned how to hire salespeople in large numbers, so that is not a problem. Additionally, we aim to start generating revenue from other locations at a level exceeding $1-2 million per year.
If You're Interested in Launching a Similar Project Anywhere in the World: Please follow the link at
map.realiste.ai for further discussions. We are currently raising SEED funding and seeking co-founders in over 100 cities.
For Professional Investors Interested in Investing in Our Company: Contact information is provided below.