Wouter Truffino is known as a one of worlds’ thought leaders in PropTech. He is a serial entrepreneur as founder of Global PropTech and Holland ConTech & PropTech.

On this first episode of the RecoTech Podcast our host Sarah Sipilä and her guest Wouter Truffino discuss the story behind Global PropTech, their collaboration with KPMG and Wouter also gives a sneak peek what his talk at RecoTech will be about.

You can feel Wouter’s energy and passion when he is discussing the potential of PropTech and the work he is doing for the Global PropTech community. They talk a little bit about mindset and how events like RecoTech create value for all Real Estate leaders.

You can meet Wouter in Helsinki, at RecoTech. He’s going to host a Global PropTech Speed Dating event in the Dome of Visions and he will give a keynote on the Garage stage on November 20, 2019.

Visit Global PropTech’s website and if you are attending RecoTech make sure to sign up for the Speed Dating event.

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Markus Logren is Innovation Team Lead at Helen, a Finnish energy company. He and his team are rethinking the ways an energy company could serve its customers in the future. 

Energy companies are changing and reinventing themselves. The main driver is the climate change that demands us all to decrease emissions and to produce and consume energy in the most efficient way possible. Buildings consume a lot of energy and will play a large role as a part of future city energy systems.

Helen, a Helsinki-based energy company, is creating the worlds’ most innovative city energy system in which buildings play a major role as energy producers and heat storages. Additional customer value can be created when new technological innovations and digital services are used to provide better living conditions and healthier buildings.

In this interview, we cover the following topics:

* Helen –a short introduction

* What made Markus join Helen and what are his current responsibilities at the company

* How the business environment of an energy company is changing

* Why Helen is interested in real estate and PropTech

* What they are doing in PropTech, more specifically

* How Helen wants to develop their service offering and what future services they envision

* What the Helen team expects from RecoTech

You can meet the Helen team in Helsinki at RecoTech on the 4th of December. Connect with Markus at Markus.Logren(at)helen.fi or on LinkedIn.

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Disruptive business models change the rules of entire industries. The energy industry is also affected by this. The innogy Innovation Hub drives forward the transformation from a power plant-based energy generation company into a customer-oriented solutions provider.

Thomas Birr is the CEO of innogy Innovation Hub, as well as chief futurist and SVP Innovation & Business Transformation at German energy company innogy SE.

Since 2016, Thomas has overseen the strategic direction of innogy Innovation Hub and its mission to create the future of energy by identifying the technologies, ideas and businesses that will shape that future and providing them with funding, mentoring and a co-creation platform. Thomas firmly believes in the concept of sector disruption; that the energy industry will be fundamentally redefined, driven by digital disruption and the convergence of new technologies and business models from across industries.

In his role as innogy ́s SE’s SVP Innovation & Business Transformation, Thomas is focused on how technology and strategy can be leveraged to grow innogy’s future business exponentially.

Thomas has over 25 years experience in the energy industry, and between 2010 and 2016 held the role of RWE ́s Global strategist where he was CEO of one of its largest energy retail and grid subsidiaries. Thomas holds a degree in mechanical engineering.

In this interview, we discuss the following topics:

* How and why the Innovation hub came about and what is the hub of today like

* Why an energy company is interested in PropTech

* How the PropTech scene will develop in the near future and what is the Hub’s role in all that

* What’s in the Hub’s portfolio

* What advice Thomas would like to give a PropTech startup or team that’s just starting out

You can meet Olaf ten Duis of the innogy Innovation Hub at RecoTech on December 4, 2018.

Visit innovationhub.innogy.com for more information.

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In this interview, Leila Collins, Senior Associate at MetaProp NYC, talks about investing in PropTech and gives advice to EU startups entering the US market.

MetaProp NYC is a PropTech venture capital fund, accelerator, and advisory business.Leila leads the MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University, the MetaProp Pre-Accelerator at Columbia University and the MetaProp Bridge at Columbia University.

In addition, Leila leads all of the accelerator investments and supports MetaProp Ventures more generally. Leila received a BA from Johns Hopkins University where she double-majored in Anthropology and Political Science.

In this interview, we discuss the following topics:

* What makes proptech attractive from an investor’s point of view

* Exciting examples from MetaProps portfolio

* How EU startups are doing in the US market

* How should an EU startup or team prepare themselves

* MetaProp’s accelerator program

You can meet Leila at RecoTech on December 4, 2018, or contact her at lcollins(at)metaprop.org.

 

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Magnus Svantegård is the Global Head of Product Management at Datscha and a partner of Stronghold Invest. In this interview, he talks about the present and the future of Nordic proptech companies, including Datscha, a leading real estate data firm.

Magnus is widely acknowledged as a leading authority in proptech with 17 years of experience and co-founder of the Nordic PropTech Initiative. He is named as a Top10 global influencer in #PropTech and was nominated as a finalist to the NYC Real Estate Tech Week Awards 2017 in the category “Top Executive”.

In the interview, we discuss these topics:

* Datscha and Stronghold

* What has happened in the Nordic Proptech scene since the last Recotech in 2017

* What is the Nordic Proptech Initiative and why it came about

* A SWOT analysis of the Nordic proptech scene

You can meet Magnus at RecoTech and Slush and connect with him on LinkedIn or send email to magnus.svantegard(at)datscha.com.

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In this interview, Roger Nickells, Partner at BuroHappold Engineering, talks about the challenges and emerging opportunities of the built environment design and engineering.

Roger is a serial engineer, and until recently CEO of the global engineering partnership, BuroHappold. He led the firm beyond the design of structures to the design of performance environments.

“Engineering” at BuroHappold is not just the shape of the structure – it’s the design for performance outcomes. The skills involved include sociology, psychology, economics, and of course information science. His teams proved it is possible to design stadiums where the home team has an unfair advantage.

Roger has an unusual passion and a clear vision for what engineering can and should be along with a clear understanding of the role that technology needs to play. Cities are the places where he sees the most opportunity for the future and where he continues to see the Nordics leading the world.

Connect with Roger on LinkedIn.

Photo: Museum of the Future, Dubai (courtesy of BuroHappold Engineering)

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Kojamo is the biggest housing investor and rental services provider in Finland. Teemu Suila is the Chief Development Officer leading the strategic development and digitalization of the company. 

Kojamo’s mission is to create better urban living. They want to be a forerunner in urban housing and the number one choice of the customers.  The company provides their services under the LUMO brand.

In this interview, we discuss

* The megatrends of the built environment and the digital transformation that’s taking place

* How Kojamo is turning their housing properties into service and innovation platforms

* Kojamo’s co-creation approach with partners and customers

* Services ranging from e-commerce to AI-optimized heating

* How the AEC Hackathon has helped develop new forms of urban living

* How Kojamo works with startups

You can connect with Teemu Suila on LinkedIn.

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What is PropTech Finland and why it came about? In this interview, Ola Sundell and Hannu Käki talk about the community that connects individuals who want to make a change.

Ola Sundell is the CEO and founder of HUB13 and he heads PropTech Finland. Hannu Käki is the CEO of two startups, RealX.pro and RealSource.eu and active in the Finnish proptech scene.

The podcast guests discuss the current state of Proptech in Finland and how it differs from that in many other countries. They also share ideas about how proptech should be developed in a small country like Finland and in the EU in general.

Many companies, especially in the construction sector, claim that construction is always local business. The interviewees advise startups to aim higher and take a global view.

You can connect with Ola and Hannu on LinkedIn and join the PropTech Finland community on Slack.

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Tomi Teikko and his team at Tieto have developed a human-centric digital service that solves end-user problems. It’s called Tieto Empathic Building.

Many smart building solutions focus on the building’s performance. Tieto Empathic Building aims to improve employee well-being and happiness and increase individual performance. By automating time-consuming and non-productive tasks of communication and administration, it enables and encourages employees to interact, collaborate, and co-innovate.

In this interview, we discuss the following topics:

* What is an empathic building and how the concept came about

* What are the benefits for the user, the employer, and the building owner

* Can an old building become emphatic?

* What technologies make the concept possible

* How the concept expands from offices to other building uses

* What new and amazing we can expect to see at RecoTech in December

Connect with Tomi on LinkedIn.

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Ever since its birth in 1960, Granlund has been at the technological forefront in its field. In this interview, CEO Pekka Metsi talks about Proptech innovation and Granlund’s efforts in that area.

We discuss these questions:

* How digitalization is changing the real estate and construction business environment

* What are the biggest challenges in moving to digital processes

* Why Granlund is also a software company

* How Granlund innovates and what are the next big things that we can expect from the company

* How Granlund works with startups

About Granlund

Granlund is a strongly growing group of companies that specializes in the construction and real estate sector and makes significant investments in innovation and development. Its key goal is to make properties more functional and smarter and to improve human well-being in the built environment.

Granlund’s areas of expertise include technical building services design, property, energy and environmental consultation, software and renovation. It has over 1,000 customer organizations in 30 countries and employs about 900 professionals in Finland, Scandinavia, UK, Asia, and the Middle East.

For more information, visit www.granlundgroup.com.

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