Moderne Portfolio Company LiveEasy Acquired by AppFolio

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Oct. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AppFolio (NASDAQ: APPF), the technology leader powering the future of the real estate industry, today unveiled FolioSpace™, a next-generation resident experience that redefines how property managers and renters connect throughout the entire resident journey. FolioSpace will enable AppFolio’s 20,000 property management customers to create a unified and elevated experience for the millions of residents they serve — from application through renewal.

To accelerate its resident vision, on October 22, 2024 AppFolio acquired all of the outstanding shares of LiveEasy, a concierge platform providing moving and home services. By vertically integrating LiveEasy and offering its services as part of FolioSpace Resident Onboarding, AppFolio will reduce the stress of moving, deliver increased convenience, and save renters time and money.

FolioSpace: Reimagining How Property Managers Engage with Residents

A recent AppFolio survey reveals residents expect timely communication, on-demand digital experiences, and support during the move-in process. However, traditional resident management approaches often fall short, limiting operational efficiency and resident satisfaction. Meeting these expectations is critical for property managers to gain an edge in an increasingly competitive market.

FolioSpace reimagines how property managers engage with residents by bringing the entire resident journey into one application. By streamlining tasks and communication, FolioSpace replaces traditional manual processes with intuitive digital workflows, including:

Resident Application & Screening: A seamless application and approval process for applicants while providing property managers the data they need to select trusted residents and protect themselves from fraud.

Resident Onboarding: A configurable digital checklist to streamline leasing and welcome new residents, plus with LiveEasy, access to savings and dedicated support in setting up their utilities, internet and cable, and moving services.

Resident Services Marketplace: A collection of essential services to improve residents’ living experience, while also creating value for property managers.

Resident Inbox: A reimagined inbox gives residents a central location to communicate with their property managers for everything from maintenance requests to leasing questions. Property managers can use AppFolio Realm-X Messages, which leverages the power of genAI, to help them sort through, act on, and respond to routine resident communications.

“We envision a world where living in communities feels magical and effortless, freeing people to thrive,” said Chris Womack, Chief Growth Officer of AppFolio. “By welcoming LiveEasy and enhancing AppFolio's one powerful platform through FolioSpace, we are taking an important step on our journey of delivering exceptional value and experiences to our property management customers and the residents they serve.”

“LiveEasy’s mission is to provide surprisingly simple moving and living experiences that combine technology and human touch for renters and homeowners,” said Venkatesh Ganapathy, CEO of LiveEasy. “With AppFolio’s commitment to innovation and expansive footprint, we believe this combination will propel that mission and enable us to exceed the expectations of both current and new customers.”

Additional Acquisition Information

LiveEasy is the trade name of Move EZ, Inc., which AppFolio acquired via merger for approximately $80 million, subject to customary adjustments.

About AppFolio

AppFolio is the technology leader powering the future of the real estate industry. Our innovative platform and trusted partnership enable our customers to connect communities, increase operational efficiency, and grow their business. For more information about AppFolio, visit appfolio.com.

About LiveEasy

LiveEasy is the country’s most comprehensive home services platform. LiveEasy partners with a range of businesses, including property management, brokerage, mortgage, home inspection, insurance, and more. Its turnkey solution enables businesses to customize, brand, and embed home services solutions into their workflows so they can offer a true end-to-end moving and home services solution to renters and homeowners. For more information about LiveEasy, visit liveeasy.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements are subject to considerable risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not statements of historical fact contained in this press release, and can be identified by words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “potential,” “future,” “predicts,” “projects,” “target,” “seeks,” “contemplates,” “should,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions and the negatives of those expressions. In particular, forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements relating to the potential benefits and effect of the FolioSpace resident application and the acquisition of LiveEasy and their impact on AppFolio’s plans, objectives, expectations and capabilities.

Forward-looking statements represent AppFolio’s current beliefs and expectations based on information currently available and speak only as of the date the statement is made. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause AppFolio’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to materially differ from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements include AppFolio’s ability to successfully launch the FolioSpace resident application and integrate the LiveEasy business, AppFolio’s ability to implement its plans, objectives and expectations with respect to the FolioSpace resident application and the LiveEasy business, negative effects of the announcement of the FolioSpace resident application and/or the Live Easy acquisition on AppFolio’s business operations, operating results or share price, and unknown liabilities associated with the acquisition as well as those risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in AppFolio’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, which was filed with the SEC on February 1, 2024, and the section entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in AppFolio’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as well as in its other filings with the SEC. You should read this press release with the understanding that AppFolio’s actual future results may be materially different from the results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

AppFolio undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

A New Lens on the Built World: Bringing Geospatial Analytics into Focus

Written By Dylan Ketcham & Adam Yankelevits

At Moderne Ventures, we take a generalist approach to vertical investing, and often look outside of our industries (real estate, hospitality, home services, insurance, financial services, and ESG) to find technologies and solutions that can be applicable within them. In this article, we break down an investment theme we’re currently exploring: SpaceTech. Know any Founders or companies in this space? Email deals@moderneventures.com.

As our partners continue to innovate and adapt new technologies, SpaceTech - including earth observation and geospatial analytics - are becoming increasingly important to consider.

From the launch of the first commercial satellite in 1962 to SpaceX Falcon 9’s record-setting launch of 143 satellites at once in 2021, the geospatial industry has come a long way. With more than 5,000 operational satellites in orbit, geospatial analytics has become critical for industries spanning cartography, defense, and even hedge funds. Historically, SpaceTech has had far reaching impacts in commonplace industries: radio, TV, and internet. Today, earth observation and analytics are expanding to new areas, including the built world.

Large corporations continue to adopt geospatial analytics into their operations for many reasons. First, the underlying technology—hardware and software—has advanced significantly. Within the past 5 years, companies like Capella Space, ICEYE, PredaSAR, and Umbra have launched lighter and less expensive synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites that provide higher fidelity and increased reliability. Second, there are over 1,000 Earth observation satellites in orbit, proliferating data. Third, advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have propelled the capabilities of computer vision to parse and analyze image-based data. These advances drive innovation that has a material impact on the way we see and occupy the world around us.

APPLICATIONS AND IMPACTS

City Planning, Infrastructure, and Development

Starting at the 30,000-foot view (or more like the 118M-foot view) – city planners, real estate developers, and infrastructure and utilities companies have many uses for earth observation data. Municipalities are partnering with companies like Rezatec to leverage satellite images to monitor the health of dams, pipelines, and forests. Qii.AI applies similar computer vision technology for inspection, but uses drone footage instead, allowing it to work with bridges, power plants, and other hard-to-view or hard-to-reach places. Developers can use satellite images to improve estimates of the value of the land they hope to build on, and brokers can use satellite data forecast market trends for commercial leases. These are just a handful of the current use cases we’ve seen in this area and there are more emerging daily.

Building Emissions & ESG

Another area with significant adoption and disruption is ESG. Buildings account for 40% of global energy consumption, and pressure from consumers and governments is helping to reduce that. Companies like GHGSat and Thalo Labs provide businesses with emissions monitoring and actionable insights to measure and reduce their carbon footprint. Additionally, corporations aiming to lower their emissions by purchasing carbon credits may need to improve disclosures as the SEC finalizes policy changes to transparentize the amount of carbon being offset from these credits, and the source of the credit. Genvision and Gaia AI are two startups using AI and geospatial and ground-level imaging to audit offsets and calculate the carbon value of projects.

Another area in ESG that building owners and operators are exploring is reducing heat leakage. By using thermal sensors, companies like SatelliteVu (which also builds its own satellites) and Albedo can pinpoint how energy efficient a building is and suggest ways to prevent waste. As society continues to push for more environmentally conscious actions, real estate players will expand ESG investment, including solutions leveraging earth observation technologies.

Climate Risk and Insurance

Climate change has emerged as one of the most significant threats to our planet in recent years. Storms have increased in severity and frequency, contributing to adverse consequences on the environment and the global economy. Among the many sectors affected by climate change, the insurance industry finds itself at the forefront, grappling with the wide-ranging implications of these risks. In 2022, there were 18 separate billion-dollar climate disasters in the US, causing an estimated $125 - $220 billion of damage according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. AON, a global commercial insurance provider, reported a $171 billion gap in climate insurance globally. To solve this problem, insurers are incorporating more data into actuarial models to account for climate change.

Companies like Climavision and One Concern use a mixture of satellite data, radar and drone images to create models that predict severe weather events and their potential impacts. Other startups, like Near Space Labs and Urban Sky, have built balloon-based aerial imaging to capture proprietary data for climate risk models for insurers. On the pure insurance-side of things, Mitiga Solutions, Arturo and TensorFlight developed AI algorithms to aid in underwriting.

DRONES VS. SATELLITES

Earth observation data can come from many sources. Two of the more common areas we have explored are drones (fixed wing, rotary wing, or balloon) and satellites. Each has their advantages and drawbacks.

Drones offer greater flexibility. They can be deployed quickly and easily for fast and specific data collection, they can capture closer (and therefore higher-resolution) imagery from aerial shots with different angles, capture hard-to-reach areas such as the sides of buildings or the underside of bridges, and their sensors and cameras can be swapped out for specific data collection and analyses.

However, drones have some limitations. They have a more limited coverage area, only capture point-in-time data for each time they are deployed, and are subject to regulations, limiting their use in certain areas or applications.

SmartRoof uses drones and AI to provide roof inspections, detect damages, and get accurate estimates for replacement or repair costs. Kestrix uses drone-captured thermal images to build 3D digital clones of houses for use in retrofit planning to reduce carbon emissions from heat leakage.

Satellites, on the other hand, can cover vast areas, making them ideal for large-scale projects; they continuously orbit the Earth, tracking changes and identifying trends over time; and they are always in flight and able to capture data: newer satellites, such as those with SAR imaging, can “see” through clouds and storms.

Satellites have their own drawbacks. Once launched, satellite cameras cannot be changed depending on the analysis required. They also cannot achieve the same level of resolution as drone imagery due to higher altitudes and the presence of the atmosphere.

While each has their advantage, it is our belief that—due to diminishing space payload costs, improvements in imaging technology, and increasing availability of geospatial data—the market will increasingly leverage satellites as sources of data for advanced analytics. In the short term, drones are viable for uses that may be cost prohibitive for satellites like higher resolutions and more specific data.

AI AND ML

AI is the buzzword of the day and while it’s nothing new, it is rapidly improving in terms of capabilities, speed, and accessibility. By incorporating AI and ML technologies with earth observation data, organizations can extract more value and make better-informed decisions. Image recognition and classification models can make predictions, allowing businesses to take proactive measures and make more strategic decisions. Furthermore, AI and ML technologies improve the integration of data from multiple sources, such as drones, ground, and satellite images, or data collected from different satellite constellations. As AI and ML advance, they will improve the capabilities of earth observation data capture and analysis.

RISKS

While we believe these rapid advancements in earth observation and the resulting data will have a massive impact on the future of our world, there are several risks to the sector. Continuously evolving technology poses a threat that existing satellites may become obsolete. Geospatial data collection may be subject to various regulations surrounding privacy, data security, and airspace restrictions for drones and satellites. The ever-changing regulatory environment poses risks to investors across the sector. However, perhaps the two largest risks in this space are competition and market adoption. Winners will (a) need to build moats, especially as computer vision and ML algorithms become more commonplace, and (b) need to create significant value – and communicate it well to customers – to accelerate adoption.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACETECH

SpaceTech is paving the way for significant impact on the built world. As costs are reduced, data is proliferated, and complex ML models are deployed, Earth Observation is becoming more conventional as a tool for analysis. In our industries, product-market fit is being found in insurance, climate risk, and ESG. We’re excited to learn about new advances in this arena, and work with high-caliber entrepreneurs changing the way we see the world. If you’re an entrepreneur building in this space – or know someone who is – contact deals@moderneventures.com to connect with our team.