Combination of national valuation tech company and innovative proptech startup will accelerate appraisal modernization and further democratize property data and insights
RENO, Nev. — September 22, 2021 — Clear Capital, a national real estate valuation technology company, today announced it has completed the acquisition of CubiCasa, a Finland-based proptech startup. Through this acquisition, Clear Capital will empower CubiCasa to expand its revolutionary mobile technology that automates floor plan sketch creation and digitizes property data collection. CubiCasa will continue to operate with autonomy and service a wide variety of customers and verticals.
“As a key part of Clear Capital’s mission to modernize the appraisal process, we needed to find a way to make floor plan sketches more accurate and easier to create,” said Duane Andrews, Clear Capital CEO. “We evaluated every option available, and CubiCasa’s technology far exceeded anything else in the marketplace. Then we met their leadership team, and were amazed at our people-first cultural alignment. This is just the beginning of a very fun journey together.”
“The CubiCasa team is incredibly excited to be joining forces with Clear Capital, which has been an excellent partner to us for more than a year now,” said Harri Pesola, founder and executive director of CubiCasa. “Clear Capital is the ideal partner to help us grow and revolutionize the way property data is collected now and in the future.”
CubiCasa’s mobile capture technology can be used without prior training by anyone with a smartphone. From a simple walk-through of a home, the technology produces a highly-precise floor plan sketch and calculates gross living area (GLA) aligned with American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards. Square footage is the second-highest driver of a home’s value (the first being location), and CubiCasa’s technology helps minimize inconsistencies and variations in the property data collection and inspection process. Companies can easily embed CubiCasa’s scanning technology into their existing mobile applications through APIs and mobile SDKs.
Jeff Allen, who has served as executive vice president of innovation labs at Clear Capital, has advanced to president at CubiCasa.
“We’re thrilled with the CubiCasa product, but also with their tremendous team,” Allen said. “What they’ve already built can serve as an industry utility to help modernize the valuation industry, and we’re excited by the additional innovations our investment can bring to the product. We think there’s major change coming to our industry in years ahead, and we want to help lead it, not just react to it.”
The acquisition of CubiCasa is part of Clear Capital’s ongoing efforts to bring more consistency and accuracy to home appraisals through innovative technology, improved processes, and policy modernization.
Before the acquisition, Clear Capital was CubiCasa’s first customer for its Digital GLA product, which is integrated into ClearInsight™, Clear Capital’s proprietary mobile app that enables highly efficient and precise property data collection. ClearInsight is widely used in national appraisal modernization programs.
This announcement comes as Clear Capital marks the 20th anniversary of its founding. In the last year, Clear Capital rolled out ClearCollateral® Review, a review system that automates collateral underwriting in compliance with internal credit policies and GSE guidelines, and introduced ClearLabs™, an in-house innovation lab set out to solve the real estate and mortgage industry’s most pressing challenges. Through ClearLabs, Clear Capital launched a nationwide Modern Appraisal solution that leverages mobile technology and non-appraisers in the property data collection process, as well as OwnerInsight™, a free, consumer-friendly mobile tool that enables safe social distancing in the appraisal process.
About Clear Capital
Clear Capital is a national real estate valuation technology company with a simple purpose: build confidence in real estate decisions to strengthen communities and improve lives. Our goal is to provide customers with a complete understanding of every U.S. property through our field valuation services and analytics tools, and improve their workflows with our platform technologies. Our commitment to excellence — wherever it leads, whatever it takes® — is embodied by more than 1,300 team members across four brands (Clear Capital, Clario, CubiCasa, and REO Network) and has remained steadfast since our first order in 2001.
About CubiCasa
Headquartered in Oulu, Finland, CubiCasa is the market leader in mobile indoor scanning, and known for its fast and easy-to-use floor plan app on the App Store and Google Play Store. CubiCasa’s technology is used in 125 different countries and has helped create over 1 million floor plans to date. CubiCasa provides technology for the real estate, appraisal, and mortgage industries and is on a mission to digitize real estate.
Media Contact
Ross Stevens
Caliber Corporate Advisers for Clear Capital
803-549-7529
ross@calibercorporate.com
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