Drooms is a real estate software provider that streamlines due diligence and asset management processes. The company has a strong footprint across Europe and has been present in Portugal since 2019.
Could you briefly introduce Drooms and its current footprint across the Iberian Peninsula?
Drooms is a technology and services company that offers software solutions for sensitive business data. We have more than 180 employees across Europe and have been present in Portugal for about three years. The activity in the Iberian Peninsula represents around 20% of our total portfolio.
We offer two main solutions: Drooms TRANSACTION, which enables buyers and sellers to conduct due diligence processes confidentially and ensures secure transaction management practices, and Drooms PORTFOLIO, which maps all stages of the asset lifecycle on one platform. This service enables users to structure, search and share investment information from anywhere at any time.
What's the appetite like so far in Spain and in Portugal, do you feel companies are open to new technologies?
The short answer is yes. With the Portuguese market seeing tremendous growth, our services are becoming more and more sought after. We are digitalising a wide assortment of real estate portfolios from international and local funds, trying to reach as much territory as we can across Portugal. Outsourcing has become highly important nowadays since not all companies have internal IT teams able to provide the best tech solutions in a timely manner.
There have been a lot of changes during the last couple of years in Portugal, but the need for digitalisation is still there and is actually increasing.
Companies are ready to modernise, and they are willing to spend money on these solutions. With tax regulations being adjusted over time, many investments will migrate towards other cities besides Lisbon and Porto.
How do you ensure the safety of all the vital information that you're indexing in your servers?
In order to keep information extra secure, we constantly update our infrastructure. Our dedicated IT team also develop safety protocols. We stand for both innovation and security. We have our own servers in Germany and Switzerland, and fully comply with GDPR because we own the whole infrastructure. Since we do not rely on any subcontractors and we don't use public cloud hosting services, we are able to keep our clients' information safely locked on our own servers. Sophisticated ISO certified security precautions and access authorisations are the means through which we ensure total safety for the data that we store.
Which business sectors tend to generate most demand for your solutions?
Over the past few years, we have received attention from the banking industry as well as the real estate and the debt capital markets. Some projects are simple while others involve gathering a lot of scattered information spread across hubs around the world. Tailored solutions are required in such cases.
The pandemic accelerated the road towards digitalisation, so you are amongst those that should have benefited from this context. What was the impact you noticed?
In general, our long-term goal is to digitise the entire industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a catalyst for digitisation, which has also helped us to strengthen our position in the region and to grow exponentially over the last two years. This evolution was also prompted by our decision to continually invest in resources and services. We have seen a lot more interest from companies wanting to hire specialised firms to drive their digital transformation projects.
What are the main plans you are pursuing with priority in the next two to three years?
Innovation is our number one priority and this is why over the past eight years we have invested so heavily in artificial intelligence, deep learning, and machine learning capabilities. In three years’ time, we want to have a stronger footprint in Portugal, with a focus on real estate since it's a market that generates solid demand for us. We are expecting 15% growth over the next two to three years and hope to double in size. As a company our goal is to further streamline the asset lifecycle management process and to offer an all-round service from start to finish.
