ATLANTA — (COMMERCIAL OBSERVER) Yes, more women than ever are assuming leadership roles as entrepreneurs and investors in proptech.
But those leaders know better than anyone the efforts required to attain such status. And while anecdotal evidence tells them that there’s more women leaders than before, those same observations tell them there’s room for growth, especially when it comes to capital.
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Sandeep Ahuja (no relation) is CEO at Atlanta-based Cove, which bills itself as the world’s first architecture firm built around AI. She agreed that women have a tougher time finding funding for their companies. The nature of proptech’s clientele is part of the problem.
“I’ve raised capital in venture broadly and in proptech specifically, and I’ll be direct: Proptech is worse,” Sandeep Ahuja said in a statement. “The biases that exist across venture — pattern matching on founder profiles, underestimating women-led companies, requiring more proof before writing the same check — all of that gets amplified in proptech, where you’re also navigating a real estate old guard with deeply entrenched networks.”
However, she sees a game-changer in AI.
“Our market cares about one thing — can you deliver high-value outcomes, at low cost, fast?” Ahuja said. “That’s it. When I pivoted Cove to become an AI-powered architecture firm, the client conversations shifted overnight. Nobody asked about my pedigree. They asked how fast we could deliver and what the results looked like. That’s the unlock for women in proptech right now.
“If your product compresses timelines, reduces risk and drives better outcomes, the market will find you — regardless of what you look like. The women winning in this space aren’t waiting for a warm intro from the right [limited partner]. They’re building things that work, and the results are doing the talking.”