The acquisition of Austin, Texas-based OJO’s Canadian real estate platform is intended to help RBC customers throughout the home buying process, from searching for housing to accessing industry experts and financial resources. RBC declined to disclose the terms of the deal. (The Logic)

Talking point: The bank’s venture arm began a partnership with OJO Holdings in 2018 to test new products in the Canadian market. In 2021, the pilot expanded to launch OJO Canada. OJO will join other proptech acquisitions like MoveSnap, taken over in 2018, and Smart Reno, acquired in 2019, under RBCx’s portfolio. The proptech sector has been rising quickly in Canada, with more than half of the companies being founded in the past five years, according to a 2022 report by the Proptech Collective, a non-profit group tracking the industry. The majority (71 per cent) are early-stage, having raised angel, pre-seed or seed funding. Proptech deals have also been growing. According to PitchBook, M&A deals in Canadian proptech increased from three in 2019 to nine in 2022, with total capital invested growing from US$9.31 million to $31.45 million within that same timeframe.