Second Century Ventures, the investment arm of the National Association of Realtors, announced the 2026 REACH Cohort on May 28, announcing the names of startups that will spend the next year breaking into the industry through NAR’s membership network, mentorship relationships and market access.
Since 2019, REACH has expanded beyond its original U.S. residential community into commercial and global programs, with the portfolio now totaling more than 375 companies worldwide.
The Class of 2026 is Ai.realestate, Association Online, BrokerBot, LotRoll, MaxHome.ai, and StackWrap.
This year’s cohort is notable not so much for specific names, but for what the cohort as a whole has to say about where brokers believe the real problems in real estate still exist: compliance burdens, fragmented data, delayed HOA transactions, and a manufactured housing sector that remains largely offline.
From HOA data to manufactured homes
The most obvious thread running through the class of 2026 is intermediary infrastructure.
BrokerBot is an enterprise AI platform that handles management, compliance, training, and guidance for real estate agents. MaxHome.ai is a transactional intelligence play aimed at automating compliance workflows and reducing manual operational burden.
StackWrap wraps your existing brokerage technology stack (tools that brokers are already paying for) into a single dashboard that provides visibility into agent adoption rates.
This is essentially betting that 3 out of 6 companies don’t yet have a strong enough back office to build their business.
The other three are a bit more targeted. Ai.realestate, which markets itself as AiRE, centralizes unstructured internal data and combines it with real estate, mortgage and customer intelligence. Pitches are a living database for your sales team, not point-and-point solutions.
Association Online focuses on a narrower issue: HOA data and transparency at the closing table, a notoriously late step in many housing transactions.
ashley stinton
LotRoll is the most niche company in the group, bringing data and infrastructure to the manufactured housing market, which REACH describes as “one of the most overlooked segments of housing.”
“Whether focused on streamlining complex workflows and notoriously fragmented data sets, building and improving infrastructure, or building transparency and access, each of these six solutions leverages the power of modern technology to improve levels of service and increase connections between clients and the real estate professionals they serve,” Ashley Stinton, NAR’s REACH managing partner, said in a statement.
“The real problems AI is trying to solve”
It would be easy to read the 2026 cohort as an AI class. Some companies rely heavily on labels for marketing. Stinton’s compositions deliberately avoid that, and it’s remarkable that she means it.
“REACH has accelerated the growth of many AI solutions in the industry, and we will continue to focus on AI,” she told Inman. “We also want to eliminate the buzz and highlight the real problems that AI is solving.”
The REACH program has supported AI-native companies in the past. Stinton cited Courted.io, which markets AI-powered brokerage recruiting and performance tools, and QwikFix, which uses AI to generate real-time repair estimates from inspection reports, as examples of portfolio companies that have delivered “tangible benefits” beyond mere AI positioning.
what it takes to be successful
Stinton said application volume was the same as last year, but AI-centric share was higher this year. She noted a significant increase in consumer communications and transparency tools, real estate media and visualization products, categories that she attributed to ongoing regulatory and policy changes in the industry.
Stinton said more than 100 companies applied during the formal application period, and REACH reviewed hundreds of companies throughout the year ahead of the application cycle.
She says companies that aren’t selected are usually pre-market companies. The standards set by REACH demonstrate product market suitability and initial traction. The reasoning is easy. Programs designed to accelerate growth at scale don’t have much to offer businesses that aren’t yet up and running.
“We want our product, its team and organizational structure to be able to support the massive scale that we can deliver,” Stinton said. “This means not only increasing revenue quickly, but also sustainably accelerating business during the program and beyond.”
Stinton added that pre-commercial companies are typically not selected, “not because there is no interest in the concept, but because the resources the REACH program provides have the greatest impact on post-commercial companies.”
“Many of the companies that were not selected have tremendous potential and we will consider them for future cycles,” he said.
Collaboration ecosystem
When asked about previous REACH companies, Stinton said some of the most pleasant surprises were when founders built strong relationships within the REACH portfolio early on.
“Funding is hard, selling is hard, competition is fierce, so it’s important to build an ecosystem of collaboration and empathy where founders can support each other and the industry as much as we support founders,” Stinton said. “Companies that leverage our portfolio community and our broader community of mentors and industry partners are among the most resilient and capable in any market situation.”
Stinton cited Real Grader as an example.
“Alex Montalenti, founder and CEO of Real Grader, is committed to every event and every connection,” she said. “He has quickly become a top thought leader in helping real estate professionals optimize their digital presence, which is critical as consumers increasingly leverage social media and AI search to connect with agents.”
Stinton added that Real Grader is now also uniquely available to hundreds of thousands of real estate agents through brokerage, association and MLS partnerships.
What needs to be destroyed and what doesn’t?
While REACH sets unique goals for each company, Stinton said the overarching success of this cohort will be an improved experience for consumers and real estate agents throughout their real estate transaction, as well as the support ecosystem across brokerage, mortgage, title and housing services.
“We believe this suite of technologies will enable more transparent transactions, increased access, improved interactions and ultimately better outcomes for each relationship,” Stinton said.
Success also means being clear about the role of AI and the tangible results it brings to real estate.
“When everything is labeled as AI, it distracts from identifying meaningful value,” Stinton says. “Let’s challenge the status quo. And let’s do it fast. But let’s do it right. That means being clear about what really needs to be disrupted and what’s already working well. The industry could use some dynamic stability right now.”
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