All interviews are part of the Bulgarian PropTech Business Channel, part of RE:CONNECT 1.0 [07.01.2021] and RE:CONNECT 3.0 [24.06.2021]

“The pandemic was a booser for our business. We see a lot acceleration of IoT, especially in office spaces. We see 2 main trends. First, controlling the energy based on how many people are inside the building. It obviously doesn’t make sense to heat up the building if you have like 100 people and only 2 are willing to go to the office. The second trend that we see is related to ensuring the health and well-being of the occupants. It translates to IoT especially by… (to read more, click on any of the buttons on the right)

“RE market is a slow market. Slower than any other market. Trends are usually forming and developing not for 1-2 years, rather 1-2 decades. Covid was a shock mainly for segments with restrictions such as retail, hospitality and offices. The real estate cycle usually lasts 18-20 years with three stages repeating. So at the moment I believe we are in the middle of last seven years stage. Stage of growth with ultimate levels of construction, prices and demand. … (to read more, click on any of the buttons on the left)

“Covid was a real wake-up call for the Construction industry, in my view, because everyone was talking about change, digitizing the industry, about moving to the next advancement, but no one was actually taking action. Now that the Covid hit, people suddenly were under lockdown, and they had to embrace and use technology in order to literally survive their business … (to read more, click on any of the buttons on the right)

“We work very closely with departments at majour Eastern European banks. We have seen that some technologies are more widely adopted after the pandemic. These are all technologies which have to do with digitizing …

“The pandemic motivated a lot of companies to start developing software solutions in a way to gain a lot from the situation and the high market demand for telemedical solutions. The competition in the sector increased dramatically. When Covid-19 came, a lot of people decided that if they make a mobile app … (to read more, click on the buttons)

“A set of several type of technologies were heavily used in the Covid environment not only in front office. In the middle and back office AI and Machine learning proved their efficiency. For example in Postbank we manage to implement in short period of time several technological innovations, some of them are. We can divide technologies by how it is positioned in our business. There are 3 types of positioning in our industry: one type of …

“I cannot think of something totally brand new coming to life. Rather, certain technologies got the unique chance to get spotlighted in way that was much harder for them to achieve pre-Covid. Respectively, this exposure significantly increased their adoption rate and allowed them to get on the track to become a mainstream. “Technologically we were ready for that maybe some 7-10 years ago, but the current way of thinking was not there”….

“As Philip Kotler stated „The future isn’t ahead of us. It has already happened.“ That is even more valid in the current environment, when we are facing booming development in the artificial intelligence, machine learning,  Natural Language Processing, Sensor tech, Robotics, Augmented, Mix and Virtual Reality, IoT and Blockchain. Further development in these technologies have potential to change significantly vast amount of process even all business environment.  Nevertheless, businesses with the strong customer centric approach …

“It is difficult. I am a little bit unsecure here as well. On the one hand we have all the growth in the construction industry, it seems that we always have enough money because buildings are always needed. When we look at Berlin, we have too less flats, too less offices. With the pandemic the office market totally changed because of the new work mode. However, the housing market is still the same. I am not sure if I should be very, very positive because we have 5-6 % steady growth before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and now. Or now the curve  …

Which were according to you the largest challenges to property developers to adopt ConTech solutions. It doesn’t matter whether we talk about pre-pandemic, in 2020, or now. Which are the biggest challenges you encounter when you offer them your ConTech solution?

What do you admit will change in the upcoming year as a result of the pandemics, which processes will go even more digitized, and how?

What are the future prospects for ConTech solutions that have only a software core, and the ones with a physical product?

Carboncapture ConTechs or how does your ConTech solution contribute to the SDGs? How is the industry being currently shaped by this trend alongside the pandemic consequences?