Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is adding to its proptech portfolio.
The company announced this week that it has acquired Ojo Canada, the Canadian operations of the U.S.-based real estate technology company Ojo Holdings Corp. The start-up becomes the latest addition to the RBCx portfolio, a subsidiary of RBC that invests in Canadian tech start-ups.
Powered by AI, Ojo provides an end-to-end platform for buying and selling homes and offers users a customized home search experience, access to a network of industry experts and the support of financial resources.
“Canadians have aspirations to fulfill their home ownership ambitions, yet they are up against an incredibly challenging housing market. Now more than ever, consumers need a trusted ally to guide them through the home buying and selling journey,” said Karen Starns, CEO, Ojo Canada. “We see ourselves as that ally.”
This isn’t the first time the two companies have joined forces. In 2018, RBCx and Ojo entered into a partnership to test product innovations in the Canadian market and expanded their partnership in 2021 with the pilot launch of Ojo Canada.
“Ojo Canada offers a powerful real estate platform that serves as a comprehensive one-stop hub for Canadian home buyers who are looking for a simpler, integrated experience in this fragmented market,” says Sid Paquette, head of RBCx,
According to a news release, Ojo Canada has seen consistent growth and overall performance since its launch. With the acquisition, the platform will become an RBC-owned company and complement a comprehensive portfolio of existing ventures within RBCx, including MoveSnap and Smart Reno.
The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Our data, (which we happily provide for next to nothing) powers sites like this, owned by banks that are kind enough to send us leads for a minimum 25% cut.
What knowledgeable agent in their right mind would provide OJO (Royal Bank funded from day one not just today) their DDF feed of their listings.
OJO is a mortgage and realtor lead generation company owned by Royal Bank. OJO seeks to monetize your listing data by using it to generate revenues your Sellers did not knowingly agree to when they signed the listing.
OJO has DDF access to the addresses of every brand new on the market property on the mls.
Just think…realtors have been prosecuted for giving new listing dialies to Moving Companies who then reach out for first contact but CREA openly endorses giving Royal Bank the ability to do it without fear of prosecution because they are not members of any mls system in Canada.
I just posted on the attempt to take realtor.ca private and noticed this one.
You should call your mls board president and ask them why you can’t sell new listing addresses to local businesses but Royal Bank has been given those addresses free of charge?
It looks like ojo is a registered brokerage which I think means they get access to local idx and/or vow feeds, and they provide more info than a basic ddf feed.