Hoban Construction, a South Korea-based construction company, announced partnering with real estate service platform Kyobo Realco, according to E Today.
The companies say that the strategic partnership will enable open innovation and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) development in the proptech field. In order to push this directive, the two companies plan to hold a joint technology contest, startup test beds and nursery spaces.
“Recently, the proptech industry has expanded beyond real estate services to construction and safety management, becoming a new growth engine for the construction real estate industry. We will strengthen it,” said Park Cheol-hee, CEO of Hoban Construction.
ESG has been a growing topic of importance for real estate service providers, investors and developers, as environmental concerns have continued to increase government regulation and intervention in the sector.
Since naming Young-wook Kang as CEO last year, Kyobo Realco has made these ESG concerns a priority, with this partnership highlighting the business’ expansion into environmental and renewable energy business fields.
Hoban has also been busy recently; they are acquiring a 40% stake in Taihan Electric Wire for ₩251.8 billion ($2.1 million). The investment makes Hoban the largest stakeholder in Taihan Electric Wire, the second largest industrial wire company in South Korea, and is allegedly being used as a way to diversify Hoban’s business portfolio.
In other recent proptech news, PennyMac invested in its broker channel with its latest Tavant partnership. Dottid also joined the Google Cloud partner program, the latest in a recent run of strategic partnerships by the data-driven analytics platform.