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Landerz Secures $1.5M in Funding to Accelerate Land Real Estate Transactions and Tackle Housing Challenges

Written by Landerz | 20.03.2024

Backed by Accelia, Investissement Québec, Canadian PropTech Landerz is building a platform to accelerate land transactions and provide brokers, buyers, and landowners with top-tier data, technologies, and expertise.

MONTREAL, March 20th, 2024. - Landerz announces the successful completion of its $1.5 million seed round funding, fueling the company's mission to accelerate land transactions—an essential yet often overlooked component of addressing housing, economic, and conservation challenges. Thanks to an equity investment from Accelia Capital and the Government of Quebec through its delegate Investissement Québec, along with financial support from BDC, PME MTL, and CEIM through the Société d'Investissement Jeunesse (S.I.J.), Landerz plans to make significant investments in technology, data, customer acquisition, and professional development.

The numbers are striking. Canada needs 3.5 million more homes by 2030 to restore housing affordability. The market's inefficiency suggests a shortage of land, but Landerz believes otherwise: Landerz has identified over 100,000 sites with high potential for real estate development in the Greater Montreal Area.

Acquiring residential, commercial, industrial, or agricultural land is a significant challenge, involving navigating through multiple channels, consolidating scattered data, and negotiating with inexperienced and sometimes poorly advised sellers.

Landerz simplifies the land acquisition process by providing buyers access to a variety of high-potential development sites, including exclusive off-market opportunities, as well as quick access to all critical information for purchase decision-making, such as market data, comparable transactions, zoning, and development risks. Ultimately, Landerz aims to reduce the opportunity analysis time from several weeks to about twenty minutes. Brokers and selling property owners benefit from structured real estate data compiled from over a dozen sources, facilitating site prospecting, marketing, evaluation, and development potential modeling.

"Landerz aims to triple in size this year, with ambitious goals for visibility, recruitment, and customer acquisition. Increasingly, buyers and sellers rely on our platform, data, and expertise for quality real estate decisions. We are significantly more efficient than traditional real estate agencies" states Simon Boyer, Founder and CEO of Landerz.

Currently, there are over 100 land opportunities listed on Landerz's application, with a total value exceeding $200 million, and the company has attracted over 4,500 informed buyers. The company has drawn in top brokers specialized in land transactions and special assets, such as Robert MacDougall (JLL, Colliers, Sotheby's). Its affiliated brokers have collectively managed over $2 billion in real estate transactions. Among Landerz's clients are real estate leaders such as MonDev, Poirier, Claridge, as well as nonprofit organizations and institutional players such as UTILE and ROMEL.

"Access to real estate data and expertise has long been an opportunity reserved for a privileged few. We're bringing a new approach to an opaque industry that still operates much like it did in the 1990s. We're investing heavily in technology, data, and talent development to foster a culture of collaboration and transparency. Finally, our clients are more satisfied with the services provided to them, and our brokers generate more revenue."

- Nadine Fournier, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Landerz

"By supporting Landerz' project, our team is proud to contribute to the modernization of the real estate transaction industry. With Impulsion PME, innovative young companies have access to an additional financial solution to continue their development and promote the growth of their ideas, here and beyond our borders."

- Bicha Ngo, President and CEO of Investissement Québec.

"By accelerating the digitization of real estate transactions, Landerz is innovating to make this sector more efficient. Both the economic development of our metropolis and that of our regions will benefit from it."

- Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Minister responsible for Regional Economic Development, and Minister responsible for the Metropolis and the Montreal Region.

"The service offering of a player like Landerz is one of the many solutions to accelerate housing construction. Their project will allow certain developers to shorten their delivery time, to the benefit of the Quebec population. In a housing crisis context, we must use all available means to increase supply as quickly as possible. Our government is here to support local businesses that can help mitigate the consequences of the crisis."

- France-Élaine Duranceau, Member of Parliament for Bertrand and Minister responsible for Housing.

"We are thrilled to invest in Landerz, a groundbreaking platform that streamlines land transactions. By harnessing cutting-edge technology and data, Landerz brings unprecedented transparency, simplicity, and efficiency to land transactions, benefiting brokers, buyers, and property owners alike." 

- Julien Letartre, Principal, Accelia

"Landerz vision of creating a one-stop shop for property developers and landowners aligns perfectly with our belief in innovative solutions that transform industries. We look forward to supporting Landerz in their mission to reshape the landscape of property development." 

- Christine Beaubien, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Accelia

Co-founders Simon Boyer and Nadine Fournier built a strong management team and board of advisors by recruiting from the McKinsey and HEC alumni network, the dynamic Montréal startup scene, and leading Real Estate firms in Canada. Landerz is also part of KPMG Ventures and an alumni of Le Camp Québec.

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About Landerz
Founded in 2020 by Simon Boyer and Nadine Fournier, Landerz specializes in developing technologies and providing value-added professional services to streamline the search, evaluation, purchase, and sale of high-potential development land.

About Accelia Capital
Accelia Capital is a $60M venture capital fund whose mission is to promote innovative technology companies with high growth potential. The fund promotes diversity, performance and impact by favoring investments in companies owned or led by women. Portfolio companies also benefit from the support of renowned businesswomen who have mobilized their networks and expertise to ensure their success. Accelia Capital is a catalyst for the development of innovative companies and contributes to the creation of a diversified technology ecosystem.

About Investissement Québec
Investissement Québec's mission is to play an active role in Québec's economic development by spurring business innovation, entrepreneurship and business acquisitions, as well as growth in investment and exports. Operating in all the province's administrative regions, the Corporation supports the creation and growth of businesses of all sizes through investments and customized financial solutions. It also assists businesses by providing consulting services and other support measures, including technical and technological assistance available from Investissement Québec – CRIQ. In addition, through Investissement Québec International, the Corporation also prospects for talent and foreign investment and assists businesses with export activities.

About S.I.J.
The Société d'Investissement Jeunesse (S.I.J.) is aimed at young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 40 and designed to provide them with financial support so that they can launch their startups or growth through acquisitions or investments in the capital stock of a company. These loans are granted to companies across the province of Quebec under the terms of the Founder, Acquirer and Partner components for innovative and technological companies. For more information, visit: sij.qc.ca

Source: Landerz

Photo
Simon G. Boyer, Nadine Fournier, co-founders of Landerz (Photo: Marie Morlon Photographie)

Contact
François Royer Mireault
francois@landerz.ca
438-870-8604