Investor interest drives Innovation Forum centre stage at MIPIM 2017

Energy efficiency, crowdfunding and intelligent buildings to feature heavily at Cannes event
Five years after introducing tech innovation as a component of MIPIM, the world’s property market is moving its Innovation Forum to the centre of its exhibition zone.
Organised by Reed MIDEM, a Reed Exhibitions subsidiary, MIPIM will be held in Cannes from 14 to 17 March, 2017.
Among the companies represented in the expanded Innovation Forum zone are energy solution providers, crowdfunding specialists and exhibitors focussing on intelligent buildings. Together, these companies are part of the growing ‘PropTech’ community.
In the first nine months of 2016*, industry data showed that real estate tech companies have raised $2.1 billion across 167 deals.
“When we first introduced the tech startup community to the real estate sector at MIPIM 2012, PropTech was a relatively new concept. Now innovation has become a major topic at MIPIM. This is reflected by our decision to move the Innovation Forum to the centre of the Palais des Festivals, at the heart of MIPIM. Real estate professionals want to discover the latest technology that can help them in their business and international investors are looking to develop and grow their investment portfolios in PropTech ,” says Filippo Rean, Head of the Real Estate Division at Reed MIDEM.
With more than 2,000 startups specialising in property worldwide in 2016, 92% of PropTech investors reckon they will match or increase their investment in 2017 according to a report from the US incubator MetaProp NYC, partner to the MIPIM Startup Competition.
The MIPIM Innovation Forum will host 60 exhibitors and a dedicated conference programme in a 1,500 sq. m area. Energy issues are a major topic for many companies, as reflected by the presence of new attendees at MIPIM such as EMBIX, E-nergy and ENGIE, offering solutions to communities, planners and developers interested in creating intelligent and ecological buildings or neighbourhoods.
Crowdfunding and intelligent buildings will also bring together a number of exhibitors at the MIPIM Innovation Forum, with companies such as Anaxago – a crowdfunding platform for startups and SMEs, FinalCAD – an application that digitalises building site monitoring, Siemens Building Technologies – which provides products and services for intelligent buildings, and Matterport – specialists in creating immersive 3D plans for viewing property projects.
Another first at the Innovation Forum is the creation of an Italian tech cluster (Copernico ilQi) in partnership with QI. This area, dedicated to Italian companies specialising in intelligent buildings and green architecture, will host Came and Gewiss (home automation) Italserramenti (windows and woodwork) Oikos (ecological paint) and Schindler Italy (lifts).
Technology integration in buildings or urban areas will also be on show on many MIPIM stands. For example, the French town of Chamrousse, will present its Life Size City project, which was a winner in an Industrial Demo for Sustainable Cities call for tenders. The idea is to transform the traditional ski resort into a new virtuous model, adapted to the challenges of ecological, climatic, energy and technology transitions. Chamrousse will be the first SmartStation to introduce a four-season mountain economy into a redesigned urban structure, closely linked to Grenoble’s valley-city vision.
The innovation highlight at this year’s MIPIM will be the finals of the MIPIM Startup Competition to be held on 15 March, 2017, when a winner will be chosen from the nine finalists. Launched last year, this international competition is for tech startups providing innovative solutions designed for the global real estate community and urban managers. These startups will present their solutions to investors, developers, media, analysts and other international industry experts. Finalists for this prestigious event will be drawn from entries at MIPIM in Cannes who join selected companies chosen last year at the MIPIM PropTech Summit in New York, MIPIM UK in London, and MIPIM Asia in Hong Kong.
The MIPIM PropTech Summit was launched in New York in partnership with MetaProp NY in October 2016. This exclusive event brought together property professionals as well as startups and representatives from New York city hall, so that participants could discuss the impact of technology on the property sector. The second edition of the PropTech Summit will be held in New York in October 2017.