Vancouver proptech startup addy officially launched today.
Addy is on a mission to allow every human to become a homeowner, by investing in real estate for as little as $1.
The company’s proof of concept property located on Vancouver’s Trout Lake sold out to 305 investors in addy’s network spread across the country. Investments ranged from $1 to $95,000, and the average investment was $4,551. It was the first of its kind in Canada.
Property purchase decisions are made collectively by addy’s executive team, investment committee, and Board of Directors.
Once identified, the property is broken out into investment increments valued at $1. For example, a $1 million property is divided up into 1 million shares; and shares in the property will be available to qualified members on addy’s platform. Investors can decide how much, or how little, they want to invest.
“Quality real estate opportunities are usually out of reach for everyday people and it is getting worse. As governments continue to print money in response to the global pandemic, they are pushing asset prices higher, which ironically makes it harder for anyone without vast sums of cash to participate in real estate,” said Michael Stephenson, Co-founder and CEO of addy.
“We believe everyone should have the opportunity to own property with access to real estate investing at any amount, regardless of income, age, or other conflicts.”
The proptech innovator also announced the appointment of five leading real estate, technology, and legal experts to its Board of Directors and Advisory Board.
Joining addy as Directors are Steve Evans, Co-founder and CEO of Sunstone Realty Advisors, Pure Multi-Family REIT LP, and Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust; Pascal Spothelfer, CEO of Genome BC and past President & CEO of the BC Tech Association; and Keith Spencer, technology lawyer and retired partner at a leading Canadian law firm, join as Directors.
Co-founder and former CEO of BuildDirect, Jeff Booth, has been appointed Chairperson of the Board. Thuan Pham, former Chief Technology Officer of Uber, joins the Advisory Board.
Addy was co-founded in 2018 by Stephenson, Stephen Jagger, and Adrienne Uy. Stephenson and Jagger are well-known in the local real estate and technology ecosystem with previous success with Combustion Hosting (acquired ’06) and Ubertor Realtor Software (acquired ’13).
“The team has been quietly building the technology platform for the past two years in order to streamline the entire investment process and to minimize transaction costs,” said Thuan Pham, former Chief Technology Officer at Uber and addy Advisory Board member.
“I’ve seen countless proptech startups in Silicon Valley and addy is the first one I’ve seen with a real chance at completely reinventing the industry.”
Interested in investing with addy? Their next investment property will launch on August 11th. Located at 45604 Airport Road in Chilliwack, the commercial property is leased 100% to Starbucks.