Propy raises $15M in ICO, hires MIT Ph.D.; Apt.-buying by Michael Arrington underway

Downtown Menlo Park, California. Propy is located in Menlo Park.

Menlo Park, California-headquartered global property store and decentralized title registry Propy Inc. announced in a press release CoinReport received the conclusion of its PRO token sale with $15 million raised from 6,597 participants. Propy aims to put the international real estate market on the blockchain.

The company had already raised $2 million in presale commitments before the start of the public sale.

Scott D. Hughes, one of the presale participants in Propy, a well-known lawyer from Orange County and an avid real estate investor, said in the release we received, “By recording real estate transactions in the blockchain, Propy brings the transparency and accountability buyers and sellers of real estate need.”

Debbie Chiu, another participant in the presale, commented, “It was an easy decision to invest. Prospective homeowners and sellers need a simple, secure way to transact without middlemen, and Propy’s solution offers that.”

The public sale saw the momentum continue, with a large investment coming in the first hour from investment firm RenGen and San Francisco-based early-stage investment company Crunch Fund.

Propy also announced appointing Vasilious Vutsadaskis Ph.D.; an MIT graduate, scientist and patent author with experience in computational physics, programming and legislative research; to further strengthen its core team. Vasilios has experience in dealing with real estate transactions in both Russia and the EU.

The company also entered into two international partnerships. First, it teamed up with Leju Holdings Limited, the preeminent online-to-offline real estate services provider in China to facilitate online real estate purchases by foreign investors. The second partner of the firm is the Ukrainian government, which has permitted online purchases of Ukrainian real estate by foreign investors.

This is the first time the government of Ukraine has permitted a firm to manage online transactions between foreign buyers and sellers of Ukrainian real estate. As of January 1, 2018, new legislation will let foreign investors buy land in Ukraine, making the nation’s rich agricultural resources available to buyers worldwide. Complying with these new laws, the first real estate transaction is in progress by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. Propy will lead pilot programs in coordination with Ukraine’s Agency for E-Governance throughout the next year.

Real estate centralization and illiquidity act as substantial obstacles and deterrence for investors looking to buy properties in a foreign country. Presently, there are no single, inclusive platforms or international standards to track and handle electronic property transfers. The legacy registry systems that were developed to manage local homebuyers are ineffective to administer international ownership transfer. Propy Registry solves these issues, as it is powered by smart contracts to track and execute real estate transactions in accordance with regional regulations. By utilizing the Ethereum smart contracts, Propy enables buyers, sellers, brokers and title notaries/agents to sign off on transactions utilizing keys within their current legal frameworks.

Image credit – Public domain image by LPS.1  (CC0 1.0)