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IBM invited a local tech start-up to its IMB Think 2018 conference that was held in Las Vegas last month.
Gavl, a live-streaming auction app, launched a little over a year ago and since that time has live-streamed more than $5 billion in auction sales.
CEO Leith Donaldson said that the experience to present at the conference was an incredible honour.
“It’s an incredible privilege for me to speak alongside thought leaders from around the world. We represent[ed] the country alongside ANZ, Telstra and Westpac,” the CEO said.
This is not the first partnership between the brands. Gavl is a member of IBM’s Global Entrepreneurship Program and Mr Donaldson has been a speaker at their events before.
“I was a guest speaker at the IBM Watson summits in both Sydney and Melbourne, telling Gavl’s story and providing expertise on how we are leveraging IBM’s products,” the CEO said.
In the brief time Gavl has been on the market, it has already been a hit among agents, Mr Donaldson said.
“Agents are thrilled to have a greater potential buyer pool and have found that they’ve been able to achieve a better sales result for a vendor. We’ve had auctions where the only big [purchase] came from a Gavl buyer,” the CEO said.
The reason Gavl works is that it enables buyers to look at and purchase properties at times when they may not have been able to go in person.
“One buyer bid while in a hotel room while on holiday, and another while on his boat off Sorrento. Without Gavl, neither would have been able to participate in the auction,” the CEO said.
Moving forward, Gavl, working with IBM, is hoping to bring new upgrades to the service in the coming year.
“We’re working with IBM on a number of AI integrations between our platform and Watson, specific for the real estate auction industry,” Mr Donaldson said.
The app is also working on streaming infrastructure, reducing latency and increasing reliability in low network conditions, among other projects, Mr Donaldson said.
“Expect to see the release of Gavl’s gateway API, allowing auction data to flow back to branches’ CRMs and evolution of the bidding and buying functionality through in-app deposit transfer and contract signing,” the CEO said.
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