Deepblocks is using AI to make site selection more efficient and effective
By Riley Kaminer
Miami startup Deepblocks provides high-precision digital tools that enable real estate developers and investors to pick the best site for their projects. The startup automates the site selection and feasibility analysis process.
Deepblocks’ market scanner functionality enables users to select a city and development criteria, view resulting properties on a parcel grid, and export potential sites of interest. Users can also see zoning requirements and analyze market trends for chosen sites, test building on the site through a virtual platform that combines 3D modeling and financial analysis, and export project reports to share with stakeholders.
Users run the gamut from large funds that invest at scale to companies with development and acquisition arms. Deepblocks has a SaaS business model, with subscriptions starting at $18 a month.
CEO Olivia Ramos told Refresh Miami that she started to uncover the transformative power of data science while she worked at DARPA’s Innovation House.
“I fell in love with designing software with the power of big data and the AI
of machine learning and AI,” she said. “Then I went to Singularity University and had an opportunity to combine that kind of newfound love for software and the power of exponential technologies.”
Before the stint at the Department of Defense, Ramos had collected a master’s degree in architecture and another in real estate development – at Columbia and the University of Miami, respectively. The Miami native had also studied architecture at the Design and Architecture Senior High in the Design District, as well as during her undergraduate degree at the University of Florida.
It was her unique background in architecture, real estate, academia, and software development that led her to build Deepblocks. Ramos’ system unlocks the potential of artificial intelligence to reduce the site selection process from a matter of weeks to a matter of minutes. All the data on the platform comes from publicly-available resources that the Deepblock team then structures, organizes, and combines to power the platform.
Ramos originally founded Deepblocks in Silicon Valley in 2016. Since then, Deepblocks has raised $5.2 million in early stage venture capital. Now, the company is raising an additional $2 million opportunistic bridge round.
In 2017, she returned to Miami, bringing the startup with her. The company now has 17 employees, two of which are based in South Florida. Ramos expressed excitement about the growing #MiamiTech movement.
“Post-Covid, a lot of VC funding has come in specifically for Miami startups,” she said. Ramos contrasted that to the situation in 2017, when there were Silicon Valley investors that declined to invest in startups that were located outside of that area. “It’s been phenomenal to see that transformation of the way the tech world looks at Miami.”
Looking forward, Ramos plans to make Deepblocks’ AI system work in every US city, before eventually expanding to Latin America. She also sees an opportunity to provide tools to help users understand climate change risks such as rising sea levels.
Ramos is bullish on the promise of web3 technologies. “The way we see the future of Deepblocks is definitely running on the blockchain,” she said, noting the value in being able, for example, to more easily and transparently see how zoning has changed over time.
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