These are exciting times. Never before have we seen so many industries being transformed by incredibly creative, innovative, and highly motivated startups.

The real estate industry is one of those areas where digitization and new technologies create new business models and new markets for young entrepreneurs.

So while some companies might fear these developments as a risk to their market share, the smart ones have already understood that collaboration will pave the way to new economic growth.

In partnership with the German Tech Entrepreneurship Center GTEC, Union Investment organized the 3rd Proptech Innovation Summit in Berlin.

With 150 applications from 48 countries, the startup competition attracted innovative startups from around the world. In a fierce pitch contest, the 10 finalists presented their ideas and business models to an international jury from the real estate world.

I had the pleasure of moderating the event and explore the future of the real estate industry for a day, which was a beautiful and rewarding experience.