R-LABS Canada, a company builder platform focused on real estate technology, and Teranet, a provider of statutory registry services and property data and electronic workflow solutions, are partnering to launch RIOS, an “innovation company that has been created to improve efficiencies in the real estate development industry, beginning with business-to-business and business-to-government solutions,” says the company in a news release.
Teranet and R-LABS formed a strategic partnership in May 2021 to support the development of Canada as a centre for innovative real estate technology companies and entrepreneurs that focus on purpose-driven solutions. Together with individual investors, the partners have invested $4 million to launch RIOS and create a new data and workflow technology platform for the development industry.
“Working with our industry partners, our mandate is to identify problems in housing and commercial real estate,” says George Carras, R-LABS founder and CEO. “We will do this by bringing the smartest minds together to create new technology enabled business platforms that will deliver industry innovation and transform the real estate industry.”
RIOS will be led by two experienced co-founders – Joe Vaccaro, the former CEO of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association (OHBA) and Antoni Wisniowski, former president and CAO of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). Together, they will work closely with the leadership teams at both R-LABS and Teranet.
Joe Vaccaro
Vaccaro says his work at the OHBA “left me with a clear understanding of the limiting effect that inefficiency has on new housing supply. I have always been front and centre of game-changing ideas, and this role with RIOS will provide me with the opportunity to apply my problem-solving approach and drive innovation within the housing and development sector.”
Antoni Wisniowski
Wisniowski brings decades of tech-based product development, data management and industry transformation experience with both MPAC and Teranet, and most recently as principal consultant at Stockbridge Innovation, to the new company.
“I have a proven track record in leveraging disruptive innovation, technology and collaboration to deliver data and information-driven real estate solutions that directly benefit government, industry and consumers,” says Wisniowski. “My experience with client and stakeholder-facing solutions, together with Joe’s deep industry insights and perspectives, will allow us to create a sophisticated industry operating system to help address the current crisis in real estate development and position us to meet the challenges that are yet to reveal themselves.”
RIOS says it will bring greater efficiencies to stakeholders in the stream of new housing supply, beginning with a focus on solving the issues and challenges related to assignment fulfilment and new home warranties.
“We identified many problems in the new housing development process,” says Carras. “These include the siloed environment in which workflows occur and data resides and the resulting inefficiencies, delays and costs this represents for stakeholders. Through our venture-building process, we have brought together a unique group of co-founders to lead this new innovation company and work together with all our partners to solve these problems.”
