Today we will introduce Spacewalk, the first startup from 2020’s Startup-ting. Spacewalk is a Proptech startup revolutionizing the real estate market with AI·Big Data technology that provides an AI realty solution called Landbook. We will meet with Spacewalk’s CTO, Daniel Lee.

Hello, I am Spacewalk’s CTO Daniel Lee. Spacewalk is a Proptech company that forecasts the value of land and buildings, and supports transparent and efficient transactions through AI architectural design and real-estate valuation technology. Spacewalk currently provides the service Landbook. Proptech is a coinage for the words ‘Property’ and ‘Technology’, similar to FinTech.

I believe the integration of AI and real estate can efficiently forecast the value of land and buildings. So the real estate market is developing into PropTech, which combines property and technology. How did you come to this field when there is no department related to real estate at KAIST?

I think I wanted to work in a field related to people. I studied electrical engineering as an undergraduate and was especially interested in the interactions between mobile devices and humans. Studying management engineering influenced how I saw the world. I then worked at a startup briefly, which lead me to join the computer science department. At that time, I researched Fake Review Detection using LDA-based Topic Modeling, which was popular at that time.

I worked as technical research personnel at Dukin, the No.1 company in 3D measurement. At first, I developed an industrial vision examination program through image processing. Then, I researched and developed the nation’s best ultra-precise and ultrahigh-speed solutions in the X-ray CT field. I gained a wider perspective and improve my insight through the work of producing a result based on various fields such as physics, math, electrical engineering, and computer science. I was able to grow and earn a valuable experience while working in an organization.

It seems like the various experiences were a preparation process for working at Spacewalk.

That’s right. I recommend students to explore and find their own way. A career that digs deep into one field is meaningful, but trying new areas by dealing with various fields is challenge-worthy. The world is a lot bigger than you think.

I believe it is difficult to create an impact without an organization culture and an innovation in the work process. I constantly wondered, experimented, and applied my thoughts at my previous company. After Spacewalk CEO Seong Hyun gave me an offer, we interacted for several months and adjusted our value fit, and I was confident that I could do a meaningful challenge. I realized that architectural design automation and value forecast fields have not been technically innovated yet. Spacewalk has developed the best technology in those fields and is continuously advancing the technology. In social aspects, I thought I could solve the housing problems by making efficient use of land.

One of the biggest problems in Korea is housing, so it’s amazing that you joined Spacewalk to solve the problem. I heard Spacewalk uses artificial intelligence to do architectural design!

The real estate field is extremely complicated. The expertise and cost required, and the uncertainty at each stage of the customer value chain (CVC) varies. In the traditional real estate market, it is extremely expensive to evaluate value of real estate. However, using technology can objectify qualitative and subjective judgements as well as save time during value evaluation.

In addition, high costs contribute to the uncertainty of value evaluation. In some cases, people do not conduct professional examinations while trading large cost real estate.  Technology can help eliminate uncertainty if it can collect enough true information at a low cost. In the real estate market, decision-making costs are high, and the gain and loss are high. I believe the aforementioned technology can create greater value with existing real estate companies.

So the innovation in technology can efficiently affect real estate valuation! I heard the Spacewalk provides the Landbook service, a technology that uses artificial intelligence.

Landbook is a web service that forecasts the value of real estate after development and presents optimal profit scenarios. It processes and provides useful information to people who trade or want to develop land. Landbook’s main technology is the deep reinforcement learning-based artificial intelligence architectural design engine, which reflects various building laws and presents optimal design plans depending on the surroundings, previous transaction cases, and customers’ needs. Landbook also uses an automated valuation model (AVM) to analyze transaction cases and make land and building value into a model, thus providing land value estimation and other important quantitative data.

Forecasting the potential value in real estate means that it can help manifest that value. First, Landbook can be used in consulting real estate transactions, and will be used as a platform to buy and sell real estate. Forecasting value of the real estate can provide important information to the buyer and seller and activate difficult transactions. If we know the current and future values, then we will also know what land is being traded and what land needs to be developed. We are hoping Landbook will reduce the social costs during real estate transactions and development and play a major role in real estate fluidization.

Spacewalk provides the Landbook service, signed business agreements with Nonghyup Bank and Woori Bank, and is also used by public institutions. I heard that Spacewalk is expanding beyond the integration of real estate and technology as a Proptech company. I am curious about what direction Spacewalk is expanding and the next technology being developed.

We are currently developing agricultural technology other than real estate.

Last year, Seung-kyu Min, the previous vice minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and HyunKwon Suh, a professor at Dong-a University, recommended Spacewalk to participate in Tencent’s Autonomous Greenhouses International Challenge (AGIC). I could not get the fact that 60% of the land except for mountainous areas in Korea was farmland off my mind. At that time, we were focused on cities but wondered whether it was right to give up 60% of the land when our goal was to maximize land utilization. We eventually came in 2^nd place during the preliminaries and are at the final round of remote cultivation. In the previous years, Intel and Microsoft won 1^st place in both the preliminaries and finals. I believe this was an opportunity to prove that Spacewalk can create value using our technology with domain experts. We are currently developing the agricultural cultivation automation technology and participating in AGIC with an AgTech engineer.

So using artificial intelligence to develop agricultural technology will increase land productivity and utilization. I believe Spacewalk will create a synergy effect by researching and developing land utilization technology.

Spacewalk’s goal is to maximize land utilization using artificial intelligence. We want to make the transaction process easier and faster for more and good spaces. I believe more people will be able to benefit from the better spaces.

The development of science and technology created a technology called Proptech and expanded the real estate market. Many companies around the world are expanding into the Proptech field. Spacewalk is innovating the Proptech market by researching various algorithms and incorporating deep learning and artificial intelligence to its Landbook service. This was Spacewalk, increasing land utilization using artificial intelligence and providing meaningful space through architectural design.

We have met with Spacewalk’s CTO Daniel Lee today ????