BC Business
The online real estate platform can help investors get their money back quickly
Sourcing high quality real estate to put your money into can sometimes feel like landing your dream job in the middle of a recession—barriers to entry are high and chances are slim. But proptech startups like Parvis are looking to modernize the archaic process of property investment.
“We’re taking traditional real estate assets, tokenizing them and putting them on the blockchain,” says founder and CEO David Michaud, who has a background in corporate and financial law.
Parvis is a Vancouver-based digital marketplace for real estate investment that just raised $2.6 million in seed funding. It was able to accumulate the capital through its partnership with IIROC licensed investment bank Gravitas Securities Inc. The company is focused on broadening access to high quality real estate by offering a way to liquefy investments, and it does so with the help of the blockchain.
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“These investments used to happen at the end of the year and you had people selling private deals or real estate projects by giving paper business cards and investment decks,” Michaud explains. “This was reserved for the wealthy, high net-worth individuals, not the entry-level accredited investor looking to write a check of $25,000-100,000.”
Entry-level investors are looking for liquidity—to get money back quickly—which is what the direct-to-investor platform enables. By putting vetted institutional-level assets on the blockchain, investors can trade their assets before the end of their term (which traditionally takes five to six years). That means if you’ve invested some amount in a project but your situation changes all of a sudden—maybe you want to buy a house or get divorced—you’ll have the opportunity to get your money back.
Parvis is on its way to becoming a licensed exempt market dealer as it bridges gaps between investors and developers, making it easy to find, track and maximize investments for the average stakeholder. “In a way, we’re democratizing access to these exciting projects in a growing asset class,” maintains Michaud. “And while we do that, we increase transparency with our platform.”