Startup Superstars Crystal Gonzalez and ER Rollan Join Forces for New Proptech Startup Noneaway
Crystal Lee Gonzalez was in the process of buying her dream home in 2022 when she realized how complicated it was to purchase real estate from the secondary market. “The experience, the anxiety, the stress was completely unexpected. I was so scared, anxious, and disappointed,” Gonzalez tells Esquire Philippines.
Although Gonzalez was eventually able to secure her dream house, acquiring it was a nightmare even at a time when everything else—a ride, groceries, hot meals—could be purchased through an app that offered updates on the entire transaction in real time. It wasn’t the case with real estate. No app or resource could instantly tell her what the next step was, how long the process would take, or even if she was dealing with a licensed and bona fide broker. There was no systematic way to ensure she wasn’t being scammed.
Noneaway's co-founders Crystal Gonzalez and ER Rollan
“I wanted to improve and create a basic level of safety, simplicity, and seamlessness when it comes to dealing with property search and transactions,” Gonzalez says.
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ER Rollan, co-founder and CEO of one of the country’s most well-funded startups (Growsari ), shared Gonzalez’s frustration over acquiring properties in the Philippines. The two then decided they could use their combined background in e-commerce, tech, and B2B to help make real estate transactions easier for buyers, brokers, and property owners. In June 2023, they gathered 30 of the most vetted brokers they knew to hear about their challenges first-hand and that became their very first brainstorming session.
They have since consulted over 100 brokers about the trust and safety issues encountered by brokers, buyers, and sellers in the secondary market. They wanted to create a safe space where all parties feel secure to share information and deal with one another without the fear of getting scammed.
“We are also most passionate about protecting Filipino property buyers,” Gonzalez said, referring to those working and residing locally and abroad who could lose their hard-earned life savings to unlicensed brokers lurking in online marketplaces.
They decided to call this ‘safe space’ they created NoneAway.
A safe space for realtors and buyers
NoneAway is an AI-powered platform designed to make property buying, selling, and renting safer, smarter, and simpler. The goal is to provide a seamless experience while fostering a secure and trusted community for everyone on the platform — from verified and legitimate real estate professionals to buyers, renters, and property owners.
The platform has the following key features:
- A ‘For you’ feed that delivers AI-powered results based on what the user is looking for or what location is specified;
- A secure, simple, and smart user interface that functions offline and on the go;
Photo and video upload capabilities;
- Verified and updated property listings without duplicates
- Verified buyer and broker profiles;
- Shareable listings that appear like Pinterest boards where one can curate listings for sharing
NoneAway’s name comes from the term “one-away,” which is used by licensed brokers to refer to the unlicensed ‘middleman’ in real estate. Moreover, NoneAway aims to eliminate the reported 120,000 illegitimate agents that have flooded the market.
Scammers are prevented from entering the platform, thanks to a tight KYC (Know Your Customer) process. Realtors need to be professionally licensed and are required to submit a copy of their PRC license and a valid ID. Property-seekers, meanwhile, need to submit a valid ID, too. The app also asks for a digital copy of the ATS (Authority to Sell). NoneAway’s partnership with the Land Registration Authority and with titling companies helps ensure that documents are duly verified.
Crystal Gonzalez with Jani Rautiainen
Big names in the startup scene
NoneAway has secured $1.25 million (about P73.5 million) in a pre-seed funding round led by Forge Ventures, with support from Wavemaker Partners, Kaya Founders Ventures, and Vulpes.
“This backing will enable us to accelerate our mission and deliver transformative solutions to the Filipino real estate market,” said Gonzalez.
NoneAway boasts a powerhouse team and board members, including NoneAway’s founding angel ER Rollan; Kaya Founder’s Paulo Campos, former CEO and co-founder of Zalora; Kaya Founder’s Ray Alimurung, former CEO of Lazada; and Jani Rautiainen, co-founder of PropertyGuru and who serves as one of NoneAway’s advisors and investors.
“Our team combines world-class expertise in tech, e-commerce, and real estate to drive innovation and deliver unmatched value to our users,” says Gonzalez, who is known for her long and extensive career in the startup space. She helped launch Viber in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, growing it to over 100 million users and establishing it as the most-used chat app in the Philippines. She has also been involved with online grocery and food delivery service Honestbee and is a co-founder of the similarly themed delivery service app Pick A Roo. These experiences hasve given Gonzalez a unique insight into the challenges of the real estate industry, further fueling her passion for creating a smarter and safer platform for property transactions.
Birthing pains
Developing the system was challenging for Gonzalez. Noneaway’s first platform was a web version, and far less advanced than the app. Like most web-based platforms, it had loading issues and was difficult to use out in the field, posing a problem for its main target users: on-the-go licensed real estate brokers. When the Noneaway team developed the app, they made sure that these concerns were addressed and that the app had offline functionality and a high level of security.
NoneAway aims to onboard the first 100 top broker partners in-app by acquiring the first 1,000 verified property listings. “All these listings will be free of charge and have waived fees even after they are sold on our platform,” said Crystal.
Moving forward, NoneAway will charge a one percet take rate after each deal is closed, inclusive of conveyance, escrow and property management.
Licensed real estate professionals can get early access starting now by signing up at noneaway.com. Registered property owners and professionals will also gain exclusive beta app access on December 12, where they can list their properties ahead of the public launch in early 2025. It is best to register early as NoneAway has a no duplicate listing policy, and the first to list and get verified will secure the listing.
