Hot on the heels of celebrating her fourth birthday, real estate digital assistant RiTA, and the AiRE software company that powers her, have been acquired by CoreLogic.
The move was announced on Monday, with CoreLogic noting the acquisition of Brisbane-based PropTech company AiRE would allow CoreLogic to continue its expansion into real estate technology solutions.
For AiRE, the new partnership will see RiTA’s artificial intelligence backed by a global property data and analytics provider.
Speaking to Elite Agent, AiRE co-founder and RiTA creator Ian Campbell said the partnership with CoreLogic allowed RiTA to attain a new level of reach and functionality.
Mr Campbell, AiRE co-founder Sarah Bell and the company’s leadership team will continue to lead the business as part of CoreLogic, with Mr Campbell explaining staff were excited about the future ahead.
“CoreLogic has the largest property data universe in the world,” Mr Campbell said.
“They are not just leaders in the Australian market but globally, so now we can plug RiTA into one of the most powerful data solutions available.”
Describing the decision to join the CoreLogic ranks as a “no brainer”, Mr Campbell said the AiRE team had always had ambitious growth targets, and the backing of CoreLogic would bring these to fruition.
“There’s a vast amount of things that RiTA can do already, but when you plug CoreLogic in, it’s really exciting,” he noted.
Used by more than 4000 real estate agents in Australia and New Zealand, RiTA is a lead generation and nurturing tool that identifies opportunities in an agency’s CRM and also conducts virtual conversations with potential clients.
CoreLogic International Chief Executive Officer, Lisa Claes said RiTA’s value to the real estate industry resonated strongly, as evidenced by the impressive traction gained by the product in a very short time.
“The acquisition of AiRE aligns with CoreLogic’s vision of helping our real estate partners identify and leverage actionable leads while at the same time streamlining business performance through data, technology and the advanced capabilities of machine learning and AI,” Ms Claes said.
“Agents will appreciate the intrinsic value of their CRM data but may have struggled to fully commercialise and maximise its full potential. Timeliness is paramount for agents to maintain contact with clients and this solution will ensure they remain front of mind.
“Along with the clear benefits to CoreLogic and its clients, AiRE will now be powered by the most extensive property data universe across Australia and New Zealand, delivering a unique suite of property and market insights for consumers, and property level triggers and events, to continually improve the model’s AI performance,” Ms Claes said.
CoreLogic’s Executive, Product, Data and Analytics, Tim Jenner, said AiRE’s industry-leading AI helps agents to efficiently leverage their own intellectual property and enhance their personal brand.
“Our clients tell us the prospecting and nurturing process remains one of their largest pain points, and often takes agents away from what they do best, selling properties.
“RiTA effectively automates the task of finding and qualifying leads at scale, with impressive results,” he said.
“CoreLogic continues to make significant investments in its core real estate offerings, and bringing new technology such as RiTA into our solutions toolkit adds significant value to agents who want smart ways to elevate their business,” he said.
Mr Campbell said AiRE always envisaged that RiTA could be employed by every agent in the country, but knew they would require assistance at some point on their journey.
“The timing is perfect,” he noted.
“We’ve always been about RiTA first, and when you look at what’s best for RiTA, it generally leads to good decisions that benefit our customers.
“We cannot emphasis enough how much this a watershed moment in our history and the industry.
“There will be so many great things that agents can do with the resources that are now available.”
Mr Campbell said he and Ms Bell remained as excited about the product, if not more so than when they first created RiTA.
The acquisition means they now also have the opportunity to leverage CoreLogic’s skillset in addition to its data.
“For our existing team this gives us extra support, additional sales opportunities and access to learning and industry mentors that we’re very eager to take advantage of,” Mr Campbell said.
“This merger means our clients now have access to the industry’s most comprehensive data which will catapult RiTA’s capability to new levels.
“CoreLogic’s significant operations in the UK, a large market with a similar structure to Australia and New Zealand, will also present opportunities to expand our reach and enhance RiTA’s functionality.
“CoreLogic will also provide a significant boost in support resources, which will further enhance our clients’ experience and allow us to accelerate the growth of our award-winning technology.”
CoreLogic’s acquisition of AiRE was completed on 19 November.
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