Mave, a Toronto-based technology company, has raised $5 million to develop its artificial intelligence (AI) marketing assistant for real estate professionals and grow its team, as it readies for expansion across North America.

Founded in 2023 by CEO Raz Zohar, Mave’s platform trained by industry experts is designed to assist Realtors and brokerages with marketing properties and listings.

“Things that take Realtors and brokerages sometimes a full week to do, we do that in 60 seconds,” Zohar said in an interview with RENX Homes.

With the funding, backed by Staircase Ventures, Relay Ventures, N49P and Alate Partners, Mave plans to add new features to its platform and expand from a team of 15 to over 25 employees, focused on hires in sales, marketing and product engineering.

Another goal is to support its plan to grow from servicing primarily Ontario to the rest of Canada and the U.S.

“This fundraising allows us to realize our mission, which is to become the trusted AI partner for this industry,” Zohar said.

Mave’s marketing help platform

Zohar, who has a background in the tech industry, rose to become head of revenue at Toronto software company Thriver before founding Mave. He took an interest in the real estate business when he talked to brokerages and Realtors while buying his first home.

With AI, a technology he described as “unbelievable,” Mave allows Realtors to get virtually “instant support,” he said, rather than taking two to three days with human professionals. On average, Mave has reduced the marketing support response time for Realtors and brokerages from 48 hours to under five minutes, Zohar said.

On the marketing front, Mave’s platform is designed to work with a Realtor or brokerage to build a listing strategy and marketing campaign. It draws upon templates from brokerages and real estate boards to promote companies and listings on social media, email and print.

For Realtors growing their presence and looking to be seen as thought leaders, Mave can help build a full brand program, Zohar said. It can “build a bespoke, personal plan for each Realtor and team to help them grow their presence online” by interviewing the professionals and producing videos that put them front and centre.

He also highlighted that Mave does not create automated AI-generated content – referred to by Zohar as “slop.”

As an indication of the benefits of using Mave, Zohar said 70 per cent of its users are tapping into its service weekly, saving on average 10 hours of work per week.

The company is onboarding 8,500 Realtors in Southern Ontario who work for brands including Royal LePage, REMAX, Sotheby’s and Right at Home Realty. Another 100 brokerages are on a waitlist for Mave, Zohar said, representing approximately 10,000 Realtors.

Alongside the fundraise, Mave announced it is partnering with Toronto-based myAbode to integrate its technology into myAbode’s agent and brokerage services platform that services over 10,000 Realtors across Canada. Mave can learn from Realtors with the partnership, Zohar said, and acquire data for its Canadian expansion strategy.

Mave raised a pre-seed round of $2 million in October 2024.

Where Zohar sees proptech AI going

With the $5-million fundraise, Mave plans to expand into providing research and analysis for its clients. Another area it aspires to reach is compliance. The company plans to partner with brokerages and real estate boards to understand their rules and regulations.

“We believe in order for us to become the trusted AI partner for the North American real estate industry,” Zohar said, “we need to make sure that Realtors are providing accurate, compliant, regulated advice to their end consumers.”

Witnessing the rapid adoption of AI in real estate, Zohar also sees the risks of the technology. People are realizing that in a regulated, compliance-heavy industry like real estate, generic tools are not a good fit, he said. AI can dispense false information on properties and regulations, for example.

He anticipates there will be an appetite in the real estate sector for AI services that ensures Realtors and brokerages are “using the right tools to drive the right behaviour on the ground level.”

An example he gave is AI-generated solutions that put the human front and centre so they can focus on face-to-face engagement with clients, while the back-end work is taken care of by AI.