Itabo

Location :

In the Taíno language of the pre-Colombian Caribbean, itabo means a body of clear water. We chose this name to represent the company’s mission. itabo seeks to bring transparency and clarity to the land market to help government, business, and citizens make informed decisions regarding land and property, beginning with a pilot in Jamaica, and then expanding regionally pending proof of concept. Currently, these stakeholders do not have the level of access to land data that we in the United States take for granted. After conducting several months of graduate-level research in Jamaica and in broader land tenure studies, Keith Mantel (co-founder and CEO of itabo) created a solution to this problem. In March 2016, he will be presenting these findings at the annual World Bank conference on land and poverty.

Governance of public wealth is one of the crucial institutional building blocks that divides well run countries from fragile states. Governments and private citizens around the world have trillions of dollars of public assets that are often badly managed and frequently not even accounted for on their balance sheets. The term “dead capital” has been coined to describe assets which have value but are unable to be used to their full potential (leveraged). In recent decades, policymakers have focused almost solely on managing debt while largely ignoring the issue of public wealth.
Zillow is the leader in the US for providing real estate related information and has 140 million unique visitors per month across all of its platforms. However, the company has maintained that it has no plans for foreign expansion, focusing instead on domestic growth. We contend that a Zillow- like model could be applied to transitioning global economies where property data is not readily available to the public in order to balance the information asymmetry that holds these countries back. The key is to leverage the inherent value of the real estate market by selling advertising space on the premier website and mobile application to those most connected to that market: realtors, mortgage lenders, construction, insurance companies, etc.

Blending the skills of Keith, who has an MBA in Economics/Finance and years of experience with Geospatial information systems, and the near-decade of computer programming skills of co- founder and CTO Anthony Dewstow, itabo will create the leading real estate and home-related information marketplace on mobile and the Web in Jamaica to help people find vital information about homes and connect with local professionals. This service, which currently does not exist in Jamaica, will help consumers through every stage of homeownership. This type of information asymmetry is not unique to Jamaica and after implementing this project, itabo will expand regionally. We are transforming the way people make home-related decisions, and leveling the playing field to help consumers across the entire wealth spectrum secure their land rights.

For more information please contact us, info@itabo.org or follow us on Twitter @itaboHQ

No reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.