DFW has long been known for its growing real estate market. And in the fast-paced local market, tenants, owners and brokers are consistently looking for ways to fill properties. However, for much of the industry’s history, placing a tenant in a space has been a slow and somewhat outdated process, according to local founder and CEO Kyle Waldrep.
Now his recently rolled out proptech startup Dottid is looking to change the way the industry conducts business. With a recent $3.85 million seed round raise, Dottid is looking to expand its team and its technology.
The round was joined by investors David Ridley, Founder and former CEO of Invesco Real Estate, Laurie Dotter, current investment board member for two public Texas pension funds, and David Farmer, former COO of Invesco.
“I just noticed a bunch of inefficiencies in the process… if you can imagine things get lost in translation,” Waldrep said. “there’s really nothing that I saw that brought both sides of the transaction… all the way to that tenant moving in. That’s really the game changer.”
Dottid has developed a real estate SaaS technology platform that allows role-based access for all involved in a property transaction. In addition, it allows property owners and managers to create customizable workflow solutions, such as making deal checklists, managing critical documents and setting reminder notifications.
The company said that by placing all parts of a transaction on one platform, it can benefit both sides of the deal by saving time and money for those looking to lease out property and help those looking to fill it by making the process quicker.
“We’re allowing both sides to have an equal seat at table,” Waldrep said. “I want anybody that leases property and commercial space to be on our platform.”
Until this seed round, Dottid had been funded through angel investors. The startup was created in 2016. However, it did not launch its product until last August.
Waldrep said that funding was needed to help Dottid grow and scale, adding that much of the seed money will go to product development, with a smaller portion going to finding the right people to grow the team. Last month, Dottid hired Senecca Miller, a former senior Dev Ops engineer from Toyota Connected as its new CTO. He also noted that the funding will help the startup begin to take its product to market, after having tested and received feedback from users in the industry.
"We’re allowing both sides to have an equal seat at table."
Waldrep credits his team to much of the startup’s success. The company also has a group of advisors from large firms, including Jonathan Crowder, partner at Intelis Capital; Don Goldstein, former CIO and CISO of CBRE; Brian Liikala, former portfolio manager for the State of Michigan Retirement Systems; and Catherine Rodewald, former president of Prudential Asset Resources.
“It’s about listening super well to the people on the ground that are going to be using this thing,” Waldrep said. “I hope that Dottid ultimately becomes a platform where we’re trying to put tenants first and put tenants in buildings, because if we can do that… then [property owners and managers are] happier because they can get onto whatever their business is.”
