25V Diversity Fund Announces Inaugural Pitch Battle Participants and Winners

By Reeves Simmons.
Updated Aug 23, 2022

SAN MATEO, Calif. (PRWEB) August 23, 2022 - Twenty Five Ventures 25V Diversity Fund, a venture capital fund investing up to $10 million in early-stage real estate, property, and fintech startups led by diverse founders, today announced the results of the first-ever two-day pitch battle held at Inman Connect in Las Vegas. Participants each had five minutes to showcase their offering and share the value proposition in front of a standing-room-only crowd.

Crowd participants served as the judging panel and cast votes onsite as well as via a post-event survey. This demonstrates a commitment to giving real estate and mortgage professionals a voice in the technology that actually benefits their businesses and solves legitimate issues.

Day One Winner: DirectOffer, Kathleen Lappe, CEO Runner UP: ADU Diggs, Kendyl Young Managing Partner

Participants: Cohome, Mao Du, Founder iGo, Celeste Starchild, COO Relitix, Diana Zaya, VP Sales/Marketing Agently, Maxim Grebernuk, Co-founder/CEO

Day Two Winner:Fractional, Stella Han, Co-founder Runner UP: Plunk, Katherine Winston, Founding member & head of marketing

Participants: Drop Offer, Greg Burns, Co-founder/CEO Membio, Tracy Weir, Founder Zentap, Betty Gabbaie, CEO

We wanted to showcase the incredible diverse talent that we know exists in real estate and give these founders a voice,. said Alex Tieu, 25V Diversity Fund cofounder. Nine of the eleven presenters were women, an almost unprecedented ratio on the real estate stage. Seeing this talent share their story steeled our commitment to fund and spotlight diverse founders and validated the 25V mission.

25V Diversity Fund was created to help Black, Latinx, Asian, LGBTQ, women, and people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds build successful technology companies and accelerate growth in their respective industries.

About Twenty Five Ventures Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Twenty Five Ventures is led by Maximillian Diez, a Filipino American entrepreneur-turned-venture-capitalist. Diez is an investment, real estate and proptech veteran who started his career managing the family fund for the late Arthur C. Zief, a prominent San Francisco attorney. Since then, Max has held early leadership roles at Redfin and UpNest, and more recently, he served on the executive team that completed a buyout of the US-based Movoto, which was acquired within two years.

Diez is joined by managing partners Tieu and EJ Pineda. Tieu is a Vietnamese-born investor with an impressive background as a real estate, prop tech and legal tech executivewhere she held executive roles at Keller Williams, Movoto, Propy, Brevitas and JLG Lawyers. Pineda is a Salvadoran American and a seasoned real estate technology leader whos held leadership roles at Redfin, UpNest and Movoto. Learn more at http://www.25v.co.