Danish proptech startup Cortas has raised approximately €1.47 million in a pre-seed round backed by PSV Tech, JRNY Capital, EIFO and experienced tech entrepreneurs, including founders of Flatpay and Spirii. Its two founders have moved from property investment at major Danish real estate investor Thylander Group into property management. Their vision is to build a new operating model that combines software development with the day-to-day delivery of services.
Property management and the software used by the industry are typically provided by separate companies. Cortas intends to bring both under one roof, developing its own tools and using them to manage clients’ properties. The goal is a markedly better service for both owners and tenants.
The company describes its business model as AI-native, though co-founders Christian Pind Schmidt and Frederik Buchardt argue that too many companies treat the technology itself as the solution. For them, AI is a means to an end.
“We don’t see using AI as a strategy in itself,” said Christian Pind Schmidt, Cortas’s co-founder and CEO. “It is an exciting technology because it allows us to rethink the entire property management business model from the ground up. But, like any other technology, AI has to earn its place by creating real value for our customers.”
A new approach to a large, established market
The global property management market is estimated at more than €400 billion annually, while the Danish market is estimated at roughly €270-400 million. Denmark is Cortas’s beachhead market, where established providers DEAS, Newsec and CEJ continue to dominate despite years of efforts to bring new technology into the sector. Together, the three account for more than a third of the Danish market.
Pind Schmidt and Buchardt both worked on the property investment side at Thylander, where they met. Pind Schmidt most recently worked at McKinsey in Denmark. Their experience has shaped their view of why technology has yet to fundamentally change property management.
“We don’t think property management becomes fundamentally different just because you put a chatbot on top of old workflows,” said Pind Schmidt. “The opportunity lies in rethinking how the work itself is organised and carried out in a new technological context. In practice, that means being able to build software in-house and test new approaches every day.”
Tore Harritshøj, a Cortas investor and founder of Spirii, sees potential in combining that approach with new technology.
“Property management is a large market where technology will undoubtedly transform both the cost structure and the customer experience,” he said. “Cortas isn’t building software for existing property managers. It is building an entirely new operating model around AI. That makes the business case particularly interesting and, in several ways, reminds me of the journey we went through with Spirii.”
Cortas aims to automate administrative work and free its employees to focus on tasks where human judgement, specialist knowledge and relationships create the greatest value. It is building its organisation around a different division of work between people and technology.
“We don’t start by asking where we can implement AI. We start by asking how to provide the best possible property management service,” said Frederik Buchardt, Cortas’s co-founder and COO. “Sometimes AI is the right solution. Elsewhere, it’s conventional automation, better processes or skilled people. The result matters, not which technology we can apply.”
Investors back the team’s industry experience
Lead investor PSV Tech has spent more than two decades investing in Nordic technology companies. It has seen portfolio companies such as Lunar, Helloflow and Spektr help reshape established industries. PSV Tech believes property management is another sector ready for change and sees Cortas as a serious contender, particularly because of its team:
“Cortas won’t be the only company trying to rethink property management. What matters to us is that we believe this team has the potential to succeed,” said Christian Dalsgaard, who led the investment for PSV. “Christian and Frederik combine tremendous drive and ability to execute with first-hand experience from the property investor’s side. They have the industry insight and the right network to
deliver on their ambition of serving large, demanding property investors from day one.”
Both founders gained that first-hand perspective at Thylander, where they encountered the cumbersome processes and fragmented systems Cortas now aims to address. The drive Dalsgaard points to is also evident in their earlier achievements: Pind Schmidt finished Danish upper secondary school with what was, at the time, the country’s highest grade average, while Buchardt graduated from Copenhagen Business School with the highest average in his year.
Cortas will use the new funding to develop its technology further, grow its team and establish itself as an alternative to established property managers.
About Cortas
Cortas is a Danish AI-native property management company serving institutional real estate investors. It combines its own technology, automation and specialist employees in a new operating model.
Its services cover day-to-day property operations, including tenant enquiries and move-ins and move-outs, as well as bookkeeping and financial management for the associated legal entities. Founded by Christian Pind Schmidt and Frederik Buchardt, Cortas is headquartered at Indiakaj in Copenhagen.
