Pickaroo co-founder bets on new startup to fight housing scams

The Philippines’ property market is booming. Yet despite the opportunities, property buyers are highly vulnerable to fraud.

Crystal Lee Gonzalez, the co-founder and former CEO of delivery company Pickaroo, fell victim to one of these scams. In 2022, she made a downpayment on a house but never heard back afterward from the real estate agent. 

“Even if I wasn’t being scammed, the experience was so crappy. It made me wonder why I couldn’t get a better one with full transparency, just like buying a shampoo online,” Gonzalez tells Tech in Asia in an exclusive interview.

NoneAway founder Crystal Gonzalez (left) and founding angel ER Rollan / Photo credit: NoneAway

The frustration was enough impetus for Gonzalez to establish NoneAway in July 2023, touting it as a proptech platform that could revolutionize property buying, selling, and renting in the Philippines via an AI-powered mobile app.

NoneAway has secured over US$1 million in pre-seed funding from Forge Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, Kaya Founders Ventures, and Vulpes. 

No duplicate and fake listings 

NoneAway aims to tackle a key issue with most open property marketplaces: duplicate and fake property listings. Discussing this problem, Gonzalez recalls a time when her own house was unknowingly listed by a stranger online.

To address this, NoneAway enforces a strict no-duplicate policy, allowing only the first broker to list and verify a property. Each listing remains exclusive for 60 days, after which it must be relisted if it hasn’t received any inquiries. This gives other brokers a chance to list instead.

In addition, only brokers verified by the Philippines’ Professional Regulation Commission are allowed on the platform.

Gonzalez notes that this exclusivity feature is a response to feedback from brokers that was gathered during platform development. While the company initially aimed to help property buyers and sellers, it quickly recognized that brokers could also benefit.

Removing duplicate listings encourages brokers to feel “more invested” in their posts, which in turn “promotes healthier competition and greater accountability,” she says.

Apart from brokers, property owners can also post listings on NoneAway. However, the platform requires every user to upload a selfie when registering. Gonzalez hopes these measures will help create a “closed marketplace where only legitimate property buyers and sellers can interact.”

“Bumble for real estate”

Although proptech businesses have been cropping up in the Philippines for nearly a decade, the industry remains fragmented. As Insignia Venture Partners points out, transactions in this sector are often still handled offline even though customers find properties online.

Staying lean