MANILA – Visionary developer Robbie Antonio hopes to become the Philippines’ first “unicorn” or billion-dollar startup with prefabricated luxury homes that he hopes will disrupt the global real estate market.
The 40-year-old CEO of Revolution Precrafted has partnered with 44 architects, including the late Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid and American rock singer Lenny Kravitz, to create modern designs. A restaurant, he said, could be built in as fast as 3 weeks.
The son of Century Properties founder Jose Antonio hopes to earn his first $1 billion in 2 to 3 years. He recently secured a $1.1-billion joint venture agreement with Indonesia’s Bakrie Global Ventura.
“You have to be extremely ambitious,” Antonio told ANC’s The Boss, after arriving in a jet black BMW 7 Series.
“To be different, you have to think differently. You can’t force to think differently you just have to be inherently different,” he said.
Potential “unicorns” have to be “relatively eccentric, extremely lofty and ambitious and very steadfast in their goals of achieving it.”
Revolution Precrafted CEO Robbie Antonio speaks to Cathy Yang for ANC’s The Boss. ABS-CBN News
Antonio said he was in talks with, among others, a Victoria’s Secret model and a “major” NBA player.
“I need to curate them personally,” said Antonio, referring to his partnerships. “I shun the outside consultants for this.”
Working with the family’s Century Properties, Antonio helped seal ventures with Hollywood socialite Paris Hilton and US President Donald Trump, when he was still a reality TV and real estate mogul.
Revolution Precrafted’s first Philippine project will be an art park in the south, Antonio said, adding he is having more pre-fabricated built abroad to be closer to his clients. The company is present in Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and Indonesia.
MANILA – A Filipino developer of designer prefabricated homes said Tuesday it was hoping to partner with government for low-cost housing projects.
Revolution Precrafted CEO and founder Robbie Antonio said the modular homes would be affordable if the scale reaches “hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands.”
Antonio’s venture is poised to become the Philippines’ first “unicorn” or $1-billion startup. Aside from designer homes, the company is targeting prefabricated condominiums, hotels and pop-up retail shops.
“We’ve been really trying to serve that base of the pyramid,” Antonio told ANC’s The Boss. “The affordable market is a goal from the CSR (corporate social responsibility) perspective.”
“It’s about design democratization. We would go to the bottom (of the pyramid). It’s a thick market and needs homes and if we can do that for the country, we can do it for the region.”
The government needs to build some 5.7 million homes in six years to address the country’s housing backlog, according to analysts.
A total of 11 MOUs has been signed between Philippine and Indonesian companies that would serve to boost trade and economic ties between the two countries, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced.
DTI said that with the inauguration April 30 of the Davao/General Santos-Bitung roll-on/roll-off service, prospects have improved for increased trade activities in the region and heightened collaboration between Philippine and Indonesian businessmen.
The MOUs signed during the recent Philippines-Indonesia Business Networking session held in Davao City cover the areas of water and wastewater infrastructure facilities, retail trade and distribution, real estate and construction, and manufacturing of original equipment manufacturer products for a pharmaceutical company.
The other MOUs detailed the development of various facilities, which includes establishing a media city to develop media content for Indonesia and the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a sports city or complex for general use, and technology corridors to enhance bilateral technology transfers.
Among the companies that signed the MOUs were Manila Water, Inc., a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation that aims to expand its presence in Indonesia; SM Markets, which is partnering with Alfamart in the expansion of over 400 stores in the Philippines; Century Properties; and Liwayway Marketing Corporation.
Robert Kwee, president of Indonesia’s Alfamart Group, a company with 252 outlets in the Philippines, said they hold a bullish outlook for retail trade in the Philippines and would like to participate more in its growing economy.
In addition to business-to-business deals, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce renewed their commitment to promote the exchange of more missions or delegations for business and economic advancement.
PCCI also signed a protocol of cooperation with the Philippine Business Club Indonesia, an association of Filipino entrepreneurs and professionals in Indonesia, with the aim to strengthen and expand trade and economic activities between entrepreneurs of the two parties.
That, in a nutshell, is the mission of Filipino real-estate technology company Revolution Precrafted, which provides prefabricated property—pavilions, homes, condos, hotels—created by world-renowned architects at affordable prices.
“We try to really be a plug-and-play [real-estate] company that saves people a lot of time and brain power,” says Revolution’s CEO Robbie Antonio of Century Properties fame. “I [also] want to make design accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy. Zara was built on the idea that luxury design should be available to everyone, as was Ikea. Revolution Precrafted is the platform for this vision—in property.”
And it’s a vision that has caught the attention not just of other real estate companies—so far, Revolution has booked five development projects worth P26 billion, equivalent to 5,000 homes—but also venture capital and investment firms such as 500 Startups, which provided the company’s first round of funding, and Indonesia-based Bakrie Global Ventura, which signed a $1.1-billion joint venture agreement with Revolution during the recent Asean Summit.
“[500 Startups is] always looking for large industries whose value chain are fundamentally disrupted by a new business model—but it’s not always easy to find. Revolution represented the best of all of it; the property construction industry is as big as it gets, and their disruptive business model is real,” says Khailee Ng, 500 Startups managing partner.
Following the likes of “disruptive” companies such as Uber and AirBnB, Revolution Precrafted’s unique business model promises the best in architectural design combined with the latest in technological advancements in property development, such that it can finish projects at five times the speed of a traditional real-estate company and at nearly half the cost.
“There’s a plethora of developers all over the world and they do the same thing: They buy land, they build, they have different products. But I thought, if I’m going to create a different business line, it’s going to have to be extremely differentiated,” says Antonio. “I started looking at companies like AirBnB and Uber, and what they had in common was, No. 1, they’re global companies, they’re not pigeonholed into one region or country; No. 2, they don’t have any inventory. And they obviously use technology to disrupt.”
The company works exclusively with some of the world’s best architects as well as Pritzker Prize ones such as Zaha Hadid, Christian de Portzamparc, Paulo Mendes de Rocha and Jean Nouvel. Celebrity designers Tom Dixon, Lenny Kravitz and Daphne Guinness are also part of the company’s portfolio.
Revolution Precrafted provides the market prefabricated pavilions, homes, condos and hotels created by world-renowned architects at affordable prices.
Revolution Precrafted CEO Robbie Antonio—Arnold Almacen
To be the “Ikea of homebuilding.”
That, in a nutshell, is the mission of Filipino real-estate technology company Revolution Precrafted, which provides prefabricated property—pavilions, homes, condos, hotels—created by world-renowned architects at affordable prices.
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“We try to really be a plug-and-play [real-estate] company that saves people a lot of time and brain power,” says Revolution’s CEO Robbie Antonio of Century Properties fame. “I [also] want to make design accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy. Zara was built on the idea that luxury design should be available to everyone, as was Ikea. Revolution Precrafted is the platform for this vision—in property.”
And it’s a vision that has caught the attention not just of other real estate companies—so far, Revolution has booked five development projects worth P26 billion, equivalent to 5,000 homes—but also venture capital and investment firms such as 500 Startups, which provided the company’s first round of funding, and Indonesia-based Bakrie Global Ventura, which signed a $1.1-billion joint venture agreement with Revolution during the recent Asean Summit.
“[500 Startups is] always looking for large industries whose value chain are fundamentally disrupted by a new business model—but it’s not always easy to find. Revolution represented the best of all of it; the property construction industry is as big as it gets, and their disruptive business model is real,” says Khailee Ng, 500 Startups managing partner.
Following the likes of “disruptive” companies such as Uber and AirBnB, Revolution Precrafted’s unique business model promises the best in architectural design combined with the latest in technological advancements in property development, such that it can finish projects at five times the speed of a traditional real-estate company and at nearly half the cost.
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“There’s a plethora of developers all over the world and they do the same thing: They buy land, they build, they have different products. But I thought, if I’m going to create a different business line, it’s going to have to be extremely differentiated,” says Antonio. “I started looking at companies like AirBnB and Uber, and what they had in common was, No. 1, they’re global companies, they’re not pigeonholed into one region or country; No. 2, they don’t have any inventory. And they obviously use technology to disrupt.”
The company works exclusively with some of the world’s best architects as well as Pritzker Prize ones such as Zaha Hadid, Christian de Portzamparc, Paulo Mendes de Rocha and Jean Nouvel. Celebrity designers Tom Dixon, Lenny Kravitz and Daphne Guinness are also part of the company’s portfolio.
Revolution Precrafted provides the market prefabricated pavilions, homes, condos and hotels created by world-renowned architects at affordable prices.
“We own intellectual property, and that happens to be the world’s best architects with global exclusive licenses. Meaning you cannot hire Lenny Kravitz to do a house for you unless you go through Revolution,” Antonio explains. “The only other option is, you can do a customized house, which will cost you millions of dollars.”
The cost of Revolution’s homes starts at $30,000, or roughly P1. 5 million, and can be constructed in around three to six months. Condos and hotels, says Antonio, can be finished in around six months to a year.
The company works with a network of almost 300 prefabricators internationally, which use advanced robotics to create the homes’ modular pieces. Some are based here in the Philippines, a factor which helps lower the finished product’s cost.
“The Philippines’ best architects we’ve signed up already. I just signed one who does P150- to P200-milion homes in Dasmariñas and Forbes [villages], who I just challenged to do one for just P1 million. [He said], I am going to put you on my priority list because the fact that you’ve given me a parameter. This is exactly why I went into architecture school—I want parameters that will excite me,” Antonio shares.
“[The architects] are open [to doing to these projects] after serious nagging from me,” he adds in jest. “Well, with some that is the case, but really because it’s challenging and intriguing for them. It’s interesting for them because it’s so difficult to do.”
Now valued at $256 million, Revolution Precrafted is well on its way to becoming the Philippines’ first “unicorn,” or a startup with an estimated valuation of over $1 billion.
“I like this business because no one else is doing it. There’s no other branded housing developer in the world, prefab or not. Towers, I’ve done that. But for homes, no one has done that,” says Antonio.
The best part of Revolution, however, isn’t its valuation. For Antonio, it’s the fact that the company is run by Filipinos.
“We’re a Philippine company with global ambitions—and we’re proud to be domiciled here,” he says.
by Dorris Dumlao-Abadilla, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Century Properties Group (CPG) has teamed up with Indonesian conglomerate Bakrie to develop three master-planned estates in the Philippines—a Media City, a Sports City, and a Technology Corridor—in a bid to strengthen the tourism and media technology sectors of both the Philippines and Indonesia.
The agreement sets the stage for a mutual sharing of resources, from allocating capital investments to the exchange of expertise and skills to embark on these projects.
Revolution Precrafted Properties Ltd., a real estate technology startup founded by its chief executive officer Robbie Antonio —son of CPG chair and founder Jose Antonio—forged the cooperation between CPG and Bakrie Global to conceptualize and support the Media City, Sports City as well as the Tech Corridor, a statement said.
The memorandum of understanding among the parties was signed on April 28 on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.
CENTURY Properties Group, Inc. chairman and CEO Jose E.B. Antonio, Revolution Precrafted Properties founder and CEO Robbie Antonio, Bakrie Global Ventura CEO Anindya Novyan Bakrie, and Bakrie Global Ventura director and Viva Media Baru president and CEO Anindra Ardiansyah Bakrie signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the sidelines of the 2017 Asean Summit to develop and strengthen the tourism and media technology sectors of both the Philippines and Indonesia.
The agreement sets the stage for a mutual sharing of resources, from allocating capital investments to the exchange of expertise and skills to establish a Media City, a Sports City, and a Technology Corridor in the Philippines.
Revolution Precrafted and Bakrie Global Ventura recently signed a US$1.1-B joint venture agreement to develop five mega studios and five hectares of office spaces and storage facilities of Bakrie Global Mediapolis studio project in Jakarta. The partnership between the Philippines’ most valued startup and one of Indonesia’s most innovative conglomerates will likewise see Revolution supply designer homes, hotel villas, and amenity spaces to Bakrie Global’s property affiliates in Indonesia. This includes 3000 hectares of land, owned and developed by the Bakrie Group. Revolution Precrafted Properties Limited delivers high-design structures such as modular homes, prefabricated structures and buildings, as well as pop-up retail and fitness centers. At the signing were (from left): First Pacific Company Ltd CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan; Bakrie Global Ventura CEO Anindya Novyan Bakrie; Revolution Precrafted Properties CEO Robbie Antonio; and Century Properties Group Chairman and CEO Jose E.B. Antonio.
Seven days in the evolving business of fine art. This week, three cases of the industry treating an extreme as the new normal… Every Monday Tim Schneider, Director of Research at Kayne Griffin Corcoran Gallery and the brains behind The Gray Market Blog, dissects the most important stories of the week from the art market.
SLEEPWALK WITH US
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo by Timothy Neesam, via Flickr.
On Tuesday specialty insurer Hiscox and market-analytics firm ArtTactic released the 2017 edition of their annual Online Art Trade Report. As usual, the study made colossal claims about e-commerce in the industry, including that total estimated sales reached $3.75 billion in 2016—a value alleged to account for “an 8.4 percent share of the overall art market,” based on the cumulative figure assigned by the 2017 TEFAF Art Market report. (You know, that one.) As usual, pundits and insiders around the art business immediately began spreading around these numbers like the clap would tear through a freshman dorm in a latex famine. And as usual, the methodology, which only maniacs like me bother to read, reveals the report to be almost a complete exercise in guesswork.
Since bulleting through every issue I see with Hiscox/ArtTactic’s approach would leave me with no time or ammunition to hit anything else this week, let’s just focus on the two most glaring problems. First, as I’ve written before, many, if not most, of the report’s grand results flow from a kiddie-sized pool of sources. This year, responses came “from 758 art buyers surveyed through ArtTactic’s client mailing list, Twitter, and Facebook.” Largely informed by those 758 anonymous art buyers, Hiscox and ArtTactic felt comfortable making multibillion-dollar proclamations about an industry rightly pegged as “gloriously-opaque” by Robert Read, Hiscox’s Head of Art and Private Clients and, based on this portrait on page 3 of the report…
…humanity’s world champion in obliviousness to camera placement. Even if small samples don’t unsettle you all on their own, ask yourself this: If our threshold for belief in an alleged news item becomes netting 758 responses on social media, won’t we all be living in bunkers, militia-barracks, or prison cells by Memorial Day?
The report’s second major problem bridges both the buy and sell-sides of the data. Regarding the collector survey, Hiscox and ArtTactic disclose the following wrinkle in the proverbial fine print of the methodology (emphasis mine): “Although the central focus is around fine art, we have in this survey also explored online buying habits of OTHER COLLECTIBLES.” Similarly, of the 132 galleries and dealers surveyed for the study, 60 percent “were linked to contemporary art, whilst 40 percent represent a wider selection of dealers in different collectible areas (such as photography, modern and impressionist art, design, furniture, decorative art, antiquities and old masters).” In practice, this means we have literally no idea what proportion of the Hiscox/ArtTactic numbers apply to artwork versus, say, Louis XIV armchairs or Neolithic ritual masks. No matter what a particular reader’s preferred niche may be, indiscriminately blending the data from all these disparate sources into one churning mystery stew makes the end result equally rotten for everyone.
Most important of all, this last flaw isn’t even exclusive to the Hiscox/ArtTactic report. Instead, it reappears to some degree in even the most trusted annual art-market reports, including those from TEFAF and Art Basel/UBS. And yet, after years of analyzing these reports, I can’t recall a single instance of anyone in the art industry ever sounding the alarms about this foundational problem. Instead, it’s been normalized into oblivion. Yes, the fine-art and collectibles markets share many qualities. But for those of us solely concerned with quantifying the art industry, treating all collectible numbers as equal is like treating fun-size candy bars and new toothbrushes as interchangeable to trick-or-treaters because, hey, they’re both prepackaged items you can easily chuck into a sack. But guess what? The kids care about the difference. And if we ever hope to get anything close to accurate big-picture data about the art market, we should too. [Hiscox/ArtTactic]
PRICE POINT OF NO RETURN On Wednesday, NYC mayor Bill de Blasio came out in support of the Met’s making a move it “has been quietly talking to city officials [about] for a year,” per Robin Pogrebin: charging mandatory admission to non-New Yorkers. If the venerable-yet-recently-cash-strapped museum were to make the proposed change, it would represent the first time the Met had demanded anything more than a “suggested” or “recommended” fee since it began receiving state funding in 1893.
I’m not going to pretend that I can tell you definitively whether or not requiring admission for any segment of the population would winch the Met out of the fiscal sinkhole it hydroplaned into with Thomas Campbell behind the wheel. However, I do feel comfortable saying that, if it makes the switch, the Met likely won’t reverse the policy again even after it inevitably rights its balance sheet. Although more and more American art museums seem to go permanently admission-free every month, it’s worth remembering that in 2006 the Art Institute of Chicago, another of the US’s renowned encyclopedic jewels, became one of the few to re-institute a required rate after years of free entry. More telling, the $12 general-admission fee the Art Institute began charging adults back then has, depending on ticket-buyers’ residency status today, ballooned to between $22 and $27. And most troubling of all: As far as I can tell, the initial resistance to the rate-resuscitation (and its subsequent rise) has by now faded into quiet acceptance of the revised status quo. That might be great for any vaunted American museum’s bottom line. But it’s a troubling data point for anyone concerned that the arts are increasingly being herded out of the public eye and into the VIP section. [The New York Times]
ABSOLUTELY PREFABULOUS
Courtesy of Revolution Precrafted Properties
Finally this week, my colleague Eileen Kinsella detailed a new entrepreneurial initiative by Manila-based collector and real-estate developer Robbie Antonio—one that is, in his own words, “really challenging the norm”: prefab private museums. In collaboration with starchitects Jean Nouvel and Christian de Portzamparc, Antonio’s firm, Revolution Precrafted Properties, will begin offering modular permanent-exhibition units that can be mixed and matched based on the needs of any aspiring collector—some of them for under $1 million, and all of them fully buildable in six months to a year. Are you heavy into new-media works? Try copping a few soundproof-room modules. What if your storage unit is swollen with epic sculptures? Just order up the so-called “Big Hall” unit. And if you want your giant Calder to kiss the flesh of the evening, you can even select an open-air courtyard component like the one pictured below. Just make sure no one in the vicinity remembers what the Cloverfield monster looked like.
From a profitability standpoint, I think Antonio’s strategy might be brilliant. At the same time, the sound business logic for backing his enterprise also depresses the hell out of me. With the 21st-century rise of art advisers and, driving that profession’s growth, the proliferation of the buyer class I call COINs—Collectors Only In Name—acquiring artwork has increasingly become an exercise in outsourcing. The socioeconomically ambitious know all too well that, today, a high-end collection is a must-own for any youngblood hoping to be jumped into the established Gulfstream Gang that lords over much of our global capitalist world. But if you’re too much of a neophyte to know the art game, or too busy snorting Adderall and poring over profit & loss statements to do extracurricular research, in-demand advisers can simply deliver you all the instantly recognizable branded works you need for your very own “world-class collection.”
Revolution Precrafted is simply pushing this hands-off trend to the next level. Thanks to the firm’s modular units, COINs don’t just have the luxury of building up their actual artistic holdings with minimal thought. They can also just as effortlessly build out their own private museums—the next logical plutocratic trophy acquisition—by literally ordering a la carte off a developer’s menu. Is this an event of significance in the art market? Absolutely. But will it create a “culture of significance” around the globe, as Antonio hopes his prefab division will do? That’s a proposition I would happily short if given the chance. [artnet News]
That’s all for this week’s edition. Til next time, remember: The biggest changes are sometimes the ones we don’t notice until it’s too late.
by Dorris Dumlao-Abadilla, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Clockwise from left: Revolution Precrafted Properties Founder and CEO Robbie Antonio, Century Properties Group Chairman and CEO Jose E.B. Antonio, Bakrie Global Ventura CEO Anindya Novyan Bakrie, and Bakrie Global Ventura Director and Viva Media Baru President and CEO Anindra Ardiansyah Bakrie at the MOU signing in Manila on April 28.
Century Properties Group (CPG) has teamed up with Indonesian conglomerate Bakrie to develop three master-planned estates in the Philippines – a Media City, a Sports City, and a Technology Corridor – in a bid to strengthen the tourism and media technology sectors of both the Philippines and Indonesia.
The agreement sets the stage for a mutual sharing of resources, from allocating capital investments to the exchange of expertise and skills to embark on these projects.
A third company, Revolution Precrafted Properties Ltd. – a real estate technology startup founded by its chief executive officer Robbie Antonio, son of CPG chair and founder Jose Antonio – also takes part in the cooperation between CPG and Bakrie Global to conceptualize and support the Media City, Sports City as well as the Tech Corridor, the statement said.
As part of the agreement, CPG will seek to provide the land for the three themed master-planned projects.
The memorandum of understanding among the parties was signed on April 28 at the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit. This partnership is seen setting the stage for future collaborations within the ASEAN countries.
Media City is envisioned as a mixed-use development that will host a state-of-the-art multi-media content development center. It is also planned to have residential, retail and other commercial components.
Sports City is planned to offer multiple sports complexes in the country for use by the general public.
The Technology Corridor is envisioned as the Philippines’ own version of California’s Silicon Valley. It is planned to enhance bilateral technology transfers between the two countries, as well as serve as a hub for the country’s tech-centric brain pool.
For Revolution, the deal includes supplying designer homes, hotel villas, and amenity space to Bakrie Global’s property affiliates in Indonesia. There are 3,000 hectares of land, owned and developed by the Bakrie Group, totaling $1.1 billion for the residential and villa component alone.
The partnership is seen to allow Revolution to diversify into producing highly functional and customizable spaces. As part of the signed agreement, Revolution will look to supply five mega studios and five hectares of office spaces and storage facilities to Bakrie Global’s Mediapolis studio project in Jakarta, which shall represent Indonesia’s strong commitment in Creative Industries and advanced broadcasting technologies.
Bakrie Global, for its part, agreed to lend the expertise and resources of its telecommunications, media and technology arm Visi Media Asia, Indonesia’s fastest growing integrated media company, to be involved in the aspects of broadcasting, programming and content creation in Media City for distribution in the Philippines and Indonesia.
“I am very pleased to have this framework of collaborationwith Bakrie Global of Indonesia to develop the Philippines’ first-ever Media City, Sports City, and Technological Corridor. This kind of synergy will help build the Philippines’ competitive edge as a tourism and hospitality destination with modern media and tech capabilities, as well as open a host of opportunities for business and employment,” CPG chair and chief executive officer Jose E.B. Antonio said.
“I am extremely proud to start this partnership with Century Properties Group and Revolution Precrafted, two very innovative companies from the Philippines that share the same vision with Bakrie Group in promoting industries through the creation of relevant developments that address the demands of the times. We look forward to advancing these goals while contributing to the nation-building of our respective countries,” said Bakrie Global Ventura CEO Anindya Novyan Bakrie.
Bakrie Global Ventura is a professional private equity arm of Indonesia’s Bakrie family focusing investment in digital age businesses.
“In its thrust to grow and expand its business from custom precrafted designer homes to creating meaningful public spaces, Revolution Precrafted is fortunate to bring these three companies together to forge this multi-faceted synergy and cooperation for real estate, technology, sports and media. We look forward to this collaboration with one of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates and the Philippines’ most innovative property company,” said Robbie Antonio, CEO of Revolution Precrafted Properties Limited.
Revolution delivers high-design structures such as modular homes, prefabricated stations and buildings, as well as pop-up retail and fitness centers designed by 53 of the world’s best designers, brands and Pritzker prize architects. It recently, raised seed funding from the world’s most prolific venture capital firm, 500 Startups at $256 million valuation.