July 24, 2019
--
Toronto-based Ratio.City has raised $1 million in seed financing to support the expansion of its AI-powered urban analytics tool. Ratio.City is a proptech startup whose online mapping and analysis tools facilitate expedited and strategic urban development opportunities.
The funding was led by 2048 Ventures, which invested $525,000. Additional seed round participants included Riocan Real Estate Investment Trust, Tercot Developments, Rockport Capital, Symcorp Capital and Guloien Capital. Ratio.City said the new round of funding will enable the startup to build out its sales team, as well as its platform through the introduction of additional data points and geographical locations.
Ratio.City was founded by Monika Jaroszonek and Erin Morrow, and launched last summer. Jaroszonek, who won Communitech’s Fierce Founders competition last year, brings with her 15 years of experience working in award-winning architectural firms. Morrow has 18 years of experience in computational design, software development and product management. The two established Ratio.City with the vision of fundamentally changing the way that real estate development deals are identified and evaluated.
“Real estate is a really traditional industry, which is why it’s so exciting to see proptech coming to the forefront, because it suggests that there is a change on the horizon,” stated Jaroszonek. “We’re not technology in search of a problem. We actually know the problem really intimately. This is a specific reaction to the kind of work that both myself and my co-founder have been doing professionally.”
The problem addressed by Ratio.City arises from the countless factors impacting cities’ urban development; from urban planning rules and increasingly complex regulations, to policy changes at the municipal, regional and provincial levels, the industry presents significant hurdles to real estate development.
Ratio.City eventually plans to expand into new Canadian markets before extending its services to the United States. Jarosznek explained that expanding to these other markets will make the platform more appealing to larger real estate developers and commercial brokers. Ratio.City is currently being incubated at Ryerson University’s DMZ.
Author: Shadi Varkiani
Comments