Capital flowed aggressively into proptech at the start of 2026, with a notable surge in funding despite a stable overall deal volume, according to recent analysis. Fifty proptech and related companies secured approximately $1.7 billion globally in January, a significant 176% increase from the $615 million raised across 48 deals in January 2025, as reported by the Center for Real Estate Technology and Innovation (CRETI).
This sharp uptick in capital deployment, contrasted with a steady deal count, signals a pivotal shift in the venture capital landscape. Ashkán Zandieh, founder and managing director at CRETI, observed that investor appetite isn’t broadly distributed across all funding stages. Instead, it’s increasingly concentrated on fewer, more substantial, and well-established platforms. This is evident in the substantial rise of the average deal size, which climbed from roughly $12.8 million in January 2025 to about $34 million in January 2026. The data suggests a greater willingness among major investors to make larger bets, rather than a widespread inflation of early-stage funding.
Venture and corporate rounds accounted for $459 million, indicating continued support for companies that have moved beyond initial product-market validation. Notable examples from January include significant funding rounds for Mews, Property Finder, and Span, which attracted investments from diverse syndicates comprising growth equity firms, corporate venture arms, and institutional asset managers.
The accelerating impact of generative AI is a key driver behind this increased proptech spending. Brendan Wallace, co-founder and CEO of Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm specializing in property technology with approximately $3 billion in assets under management, explained that AI is rapidly accelerating the obsolescence of existing technologies. “AI-native enterprise software is already beginning to unseat established solutions, and the traditional advantages of incumbency and high switching costs are eroding quickly,” Wallace noted. “This is unlike anything we’ve seen before at Fifth Wall.”
Furthermore, AI-specific models are reshaping investment priorities within the real estate sector. Capital that previously flowed into data warehousing, business intelligence, and large-scale consulting is being reallocated to AI models capable of delivering comparable insights more rapidly and cost-effectively. Consequently, real estate organizations are actively re-evaluating their core technology infrastructure to adapt to the transformative changes that generative and agentic AI are poised to bring.
Private equity investments contributed $320 million in January, while structured growth, strategic, and non-traditional instruments accounted for $444 million. This diversification in the proptech capital stack underscores the evolving and non-linear nature of investment in the sector.
Geographically, while proptech investment activity was robust across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia, companies in Europe and the Middle East demonstrated particular dynamism in both early-stage and later-stage transactions. Their focus areas included construction technology, energy infrastructure, and broader real estate solutions.
While a single month’s data does not definitively establish a long-term trend, the substantial shift suggests a more active capital environment for proptech, particularly as AI continues to dominate investment narratives. This environment rewards founders with a clear articulation of their business model’s durability and capital needs. For investors, it underscores the critical importance of discerning underlying deal composition beyond headline capital totals.
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