Proptech Spotlight: Redist
Contents
Maximize government incentives on your projects
If you’ve ever led a development deal, tax incentives and government sponsored programs may have been on your radar. But the sheer amount of rules and red tape make it so intimidating that you can’t be blamed for focusing on more urgent matters. And so, you bookmark the idea for the next deal.. and the next.. and the next…
That’s why untold billions go unclaimed every year. Like literally untold. I couldn’t find any data on it.
What is Redist
Redist is a venture backed startup founded in 2021, by Atif Qadir and Jonathan Kuo, two former real estate industry insiders. (The video has an interview with Atif)
They take the mystery out of whether a property is eligible for public financing programs, tax incentives, and rebates. While it’s not even quite proptech- more of a consultancy- it’s worthy of a spotlight because getting free money and cheaper loans is a clear value add.
They compile all the programs your project is eligible for in a concise dashboard, along with checklists and milestones to show you where they’re at in handling all the filings for you. Here’s what my dashboard looked like:
Who can use Redist
Redist’s ideal customer right now is a real estate developer with a deal (or deals) in NY or NJ with total project costs of $5m or more. And they should currently be in the pre development process because applying for incentives almost always happens before construction starts. So if that’s you, then you should go ahead and reach out to Redist.
SWOT Analysis
| STRENGTHS | WEAKNESSES |
| + No direct competition aside from hiring really expensive lawyers or specialized zoning consultants + Founders are from the real estate industry | -Currently doing a lot of things that don’t scale, which is great for me as a customer but that’s where venture funding makes this tricky. -Data is the new oil- There’s just too much of it. And public financing options are always changing, especially right after an election cycle. So Redist has the challenge of gathering and capitalizing on the public incentive data before it becomes irrelevant. |
| OPPORTUNITIES | THREATS |
| +Expand geographically. They’re expanding to Florida, Texas, California, and Connecticut next. +Expand customer type. As technology starts to play more of a role for them and the unit economics tips in their favor, they can service a wider range of developers and projects. +Expand the range of services. They would like to eventually arrange full depth financing meaning acquisition, construction, and green loan. | – Being too successful may actually hurt them. Better known government incentives disappear immediately- look at PPP. So if Redist does a great job of helping people identify incentives, the incentives themselves will disappear real fast. |
Conclusions
Developer usefulness: VERY USEFUL. That’s why I’m using them!
Risk level: LOW. I’m not an expert on public financing so trying to apply for these programs myself is not an optimal use of my time. So it makes sense for me to outsource this and see what they can find.
Outlook: The success of Redist really depends on how good their marketing is. The more developers that know about it the more return they get on their time of putting together the database of public incentives in the regions of the cover, which in turn allows them to reinvest in enlarging that database to more regions and finding more customers. Ultimately, that is how they’ll scale.
Derek is the founder of The Proptech Scout, as well as an NYC landlord and real estate developer. In a former career, he bootstrapped and exited an e-commerce business while side hustling as a strategy consultant.