The PropTech market in France is the third-strongest in Europe, only surpassed by the UK and Germany. About 500 property technology startups and companies exist in the country, with most of them being based in its capital, Paris. While the US has the biggest market globally, it can be seen that the European one is growing the fastest.
In the following ranking, we wanted to find out which are the most successful PropTech companies in France in 2023. With the information gained from this research, it can be predicted which business models seem to be the most promising and why certain companies perform better than others. To do so, we analyzed the funding each PropTech business in France received and then simply ranked them by the highest amount. This ranking only includes companies that are still active and operating, even if others might have received higher funding.
Top 5 PropTech Companies in France 2023
The following startups have shown significant success in their field and have the most promising outlook for future growth, thanks to the capital they recently acquired. To accurately create this ranking, we refer to up-to-date data from crunchbase.
1 | Colonies
- Funding: $213 million
- Founding Date: 2017
- Business Model: Co-Living
“Colonies” is the most successful PropTech company in France, measured by their total funding amount. The co-living provider has raised $213 million to fund their business, with their series B round in 2020 contributing $180 million. Alexandre Martin, Amaury Courbon and Francois Roth founded the company in 2017 and currently operate in several French cities, as well as Berlin, Germany.
Their business model works by matching tenants that look for a short-term rental solution with real estate investors and property owners. Most of Colonies’ customers are young professionals and students that shift to France for a few months or years. At the moment, the company has buildings in Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Marseille, Fontainebleau, Nantes, and Toulouse. Furthermore, because of their success and support from investors, Colonies was able to expand to Berlin, as well as Brussels in May 2022.
They offer two types of solutions, co-living and supercoloc. The first includes studios and rooms in large apartments and buildings that offer privacy but also provide a community with other tenants. The second option often includes smaller apartments with fewer shared spaces, for 4 to 8 tenants. These are less expensive than co-living but also include fewer amenities.
Currently, Colonies is targeting three different types of property investors. First of all, private investors that own a building or apartment and want to rent it to tenants. This will be professionally managed by the company to make it suitable for co-living. It is also possible to invest without a property, then Colonies will help to find the right one. Second, in collaboration with clubfunding, they offer a crowdfunding platform for their co-living apartments. This makes it more accessible to smaller investors who can start to invest with just 1,000€. Lastly, Colonies also targets institutional investors that want to diversify their portfolio with co-living properties.
With its latest funding round in 2020, the business is planning to expand its business further into new markets which include France and other European countries. 5 of their projects were able to achieve operating profitability within just one year after starting them.
2 | Deepki
- Funding: $178 million
- Founding Date: 2014
- Business Model: ESG Strategy Planning/Consulting
The second-most funded PropTech company in France is called “Deepki”, which received $178 million from investors. Most of this came in their latest series-c round in March 2022 with $157 million. The company was founded by Emmanuel Blanchet and Vincent Bryant in 2014 and its headquarter is currently in Paris.
Deepki uses data analysis to help real estate stakeholders make strategic decisions toward ESG efficiency and sustainable buildings. The SaaS platform is collecting information from its customers, which will then be analysed over time in order to review their asset’s environmental performance. Deepki tries to find potential opportunities for energy-saving, decarbonization, cost-saving, and more, in a business and its property portfolio.
At the moment, the company is offering three packages of its software, the essential, professional, and enterprise version. The more advanced solutions include more possibilities for data collection, as well as management, and are suitable for larger portfolios in multiple regions. Their data management platform is called Deepki Ready. In addition, they also offer Deepki Success, which offers technical support and training for professionals that want to improve their ESG strategy. Lastly, Deepki Advisory consults companies on planning and implementing ESG strategies.
With the large amount of funding that the company recently received, the goal is to accelerate its growth and market leadership in Europe. To achieve this, Deepki wants to hire more than 200 additional employees.
3 | Luko
- Funding: $85 million
- Founding Date: 2016
- Business Model: Home Insurance
“Luko” is an intelligent insurance company that uses technology to improve its performance. In this ranking of the top 5 PropTech companies in France, the business came in third place with a funding of about $85 million. It was established in 2016 by Benoit Bourdel and Raphael Vullierme. In the latest series B funding round, €50 million have been contributed by investors.
The startup has the vision of creating a HomeCare environment in which not only home insurance is available to its customers, but also maintenance and repair services. Currently, Luko offers four different home insurances. These are suitable for flats, houses, secondary homes, and landlords. Furthermore, they offer building and mortgage, as well as school and e-scooter insurance.
In addition to these products, Luko also has a number of services available for homes and households. They give advice on insurance, help to manage claims, and help with maintenance as well as repairs. A new service on their site is called “Immo”, which analyses real estate websites to find new deals on apartments and houses. The company claims that this tool saves the homebuyer time by matching them with the right property more accurately.
Thanks to a cooperation between Luko and Netatmo, the company is able to offer 10% off their insurance. Netatmo sells smart home devices including smart cameras and door locks. This reduces the risk of insurance claims for Luko and thus enables them to provide a discount.
Recently, the company has acquired Coya, which is a German insurance startup. This allows them to easily enter the new market and also gain an insurance licence.
4 | Finalcad
- Funding: $63 million
- Founding Date: 2011
- Business Model: Construction Management Tools
The fourth most successful PropTech company in France in 2023 is “Finalcad”. It received $63 million in funding, of which €40 million have been contributed in its latest series-c financing round. The French company was established in 2011 by David Vauthrin, Jimmy Louchart, and Joffroy Louchart.
FINALCAD offers a variety of tools for professionals in the construction industry that make processes and collaboration easier and more efficient. There are a total of four main topics that the company’s solution is focusing on: Collaboration, Quality, Safety, and Progress.
Collaboration is improved by involving all stakeholders of a project, being able to group certain people together, and integrating plans or graphics that can be utilized interactively. The quality of construction can benefit from FINALCAD by regularly conducting inspections, helping to identify defects, and sharing necessary repairs. Furthermore, the software can improve safety on the site by sending a notification instantly, and to all involved members, in case a hazard appears. Lastly, the progress of construction projects can be tracked easier by organising tasks more effectively and monitoring work in real-time.
After their latest financing round in 2018, FINALCAD planned to add and improve the functions of their SaaS platform. Furthermore, the company also wants to put a higher focus on its R&D department.
5 | Pretto
- Funding: $41 million
- Founding Date: 2016
- Business Model: Mortgage Comparison
The mortgage platform “Pretto” is ranked fifth, with a total funding amount of $39 million. The company was founded in 2016 by Pierre Chapon and Renaud Pestre. Like all the other French PropTech startups in this ranking, their headquarter is located in Paris. Most of Pretto’s funding capital has been contributed by investors in January 2022, which amounts to €30 million.
Pretto is comparing loans from more than 50 partner banks in order to find the best solution for home buyers. On their website, the company offers a variety of free tools that help with simulating mortgages, renegotiating existing loans, calculating the right budget for the next house purchase, and finding the current interest rates. Furthermore, Pretto provides its customers with a certificate that can prove their financial standing to real estate agents and sellers. This helps to make the transaction process easier and faster.
The company claims that they can offer better rates through their service, as they put multiple banks into competition, which can lead to lower costs. Thanks to their innovative mortgage simulator, which finds the most suitable loans for each customer with the help of AI, Pretto makes sure that each bank gets the best customers.
They also launched the app “Pretto Search” which collects information from multiple online property listing sites in France and provides users with an easy way of finding their next home.
Within the 5 years of entering the mortgage market in early 2017 till today, Pretto was able to provide more than €1 billion worth of financing through their partner banks. In addition, the company has employed 170 employees and opened a second office in Nantes.
Conclusion
Compared to the other PropTech markets we have analysed in our PropTech series, such as India, Germany, or the UK, the French market is slightly different. While the companies use business models that also show success in other countries, each of the top startups operates in a different area. There is co-living, ESG strategy consulting, home insurance, construction planning, and mortgages. For a lot of these companies, a large amount of funding has just been acquired in the current or last year, which shows how investors are believing in these concepts at the current time.
If you want to learn more about PropTech, smart buildings, smart cities, and sustainable real estate, feel free to take a look at our other blog articles.