【GOGEN Inc.】Completing Real Estate Transactions via LINE: DXing a Legacy Giant Industry through Ecosystem Integration & AI

A Former Developer Tackles the Digital Shift of Legacy Real Estate Transactions

Hello everyone. I am Hiroaki Wada, CEO of GOGEN Inc. It is a pleasure to speak with you today.

Our company was founded in 2020 and is currently in its 5th term as a real estate technology startup. While we are still a small team of about a dozen people, we boast an in-house engineering team and have been highly evaluated for our strong product development capabilities and engineering productivity.

As for my background, I joined a major real estate developer after graduation and spent many years in the field of real estate sales. Having led internal DX (digital transformation) projects there, I experienced firsthand the severe challenges of this massive, legacy industry, which inspired me to found GOGEN.

Our primary focus is the "sale and purchase (transaction)" of "residential real estate (homes)."

A home is the most expensive purchase in a person's life. It requires immense time and money, making it a critical event directly linked to their life's happiness. However, the real estate industry remains extremely analog, and because of the massive volume of paperwork and lack of transparency, disputes and troubles are common.

Furthermore, the industry is facing a severe shortage of workers.

Surprisingly, data shows that about 14% of all municipalities in Japan currently have zero active real estate companies. If this trend continues, the circulation and maintenance of national land will grind to a halt. Consequently, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has warned that we must build an infrastructure where anyone can trade real estate easily and safely using digital technology.

In terms of legal reforms, "written digitization (electronic contracts)" was finally legalized three years ago. The industry has now entered a transition period from analog to digital, triggered by reforms like the regulation of property hogging and integration with My Number cards.

Against this backdrop, under our mission of "Providing real estate by the people, with a new approach," we offer "RELYS," a SaaS platform that completely digitalizes home buying and selling transactions.

Automating Real Estate Law Compliance: Direct Signature via LINE & CloudSign

RELYS, the platform we provide, sits between real estate companies and end-users (buyers and sellers), completing all post-contract transaction procedures on the cloud.

Specifically, it unifies contract exchanges, identity verification (KYC), document uploads, and application procedures.

Real estate transactions in Japan are strictly regulated by the Building Lots and Buildings Transaction Business Act, which dictates exactly "when, what must be explained, and what procedures must be carried out." RELYS embeds this strict legal workflow directly into the system, completely automating task and deadline management as "task automation." This eliminates human errors, such as missed checks or incomplete paperwork by sales agents.

So, how does the experience change for the buyers (end-users)?

End-users do not need to download a new, dedicated app. By using their everyday tool "LINE" and clicking the link sent from the real estate company, they can access their personal page and complete all procedures.

RELYS is integrated with CloudSign, the major electronic contract service operated by Bengo4.com. Under robust security combined with SMS authentication (acting as a digital seal), users can check important explanation documents and contracts, and digitally sign them with a single tap on their smartphone.

In the past, buyers had to take a paid day off on weekdays to visit the office and handwrite their signature and stamp their seal on multiple pages of documents. Now, this can all be completed in a few minutes from home or on the go using a smartphone.

Automated Fire Insurance Quotes via API Using Contract Data: Building a Full Value Chain

Our platform is growing rapidly, with adoption expanding among major developers, brokerage firms, and house builders.

Currently, the annual number of transactions processed through RELYS has reached 20,000 to 30,000. This volume exceeds the annual contract count of Japan's top-tier real estate companies, establishing RELYS as a strong infrastructure for real estate transactions.

However, our goal goes far beyond "contract digitization."

Anyone who has bought a home knows that the process does not end with signing a contract with the real estate agent. After that, countless peripheral tasks arise: applying for fire insurance, arranging moving companies, coordinating with judicial scriveners for registration, and applying for housing loans. Buyers must exchange paperwork with each vendor individually.

We connect the contract data on RELYS with peripheral players via APIs, promoting the DX of the entire value chain associated with home purchases.

Take fire insurance application as an example.

Traditionally, buyers had to copy their contracts, send them to insurance companies, and wait days for a quote. In RELYS, our AI automatically and accurately extracts necessary quote information, such as "structure type," "area size," and "construction year," from the uploaded real estate contract.

Furthermore, we connect directly with the core systems of major non-life insurance companies via API. The extracted data is transmitted instantly to the insurer, generating a quote in just a few seconds. The customer can review the quote on their smartphone screen and complete the payment immediately using a credit card.

In the future, we will expand this integration to all peripheral areas of real estate transactions, including registration (judicial scriveners), home loans (financial institutions), and moving services, building a massive digital ecosystem centered around real estate transactions.

Additionally, by the end of the year, we plan to release a new communication app integrated with LINE for the "pre-contract phase," enabling automated transcription of business meetings and AI analysis. From the initial inquiry to the final handover, we will make home purchasing seamless and smooth. We look forward to partnering with businesses to shape the future of real estate transactions. Thank you.

Q&A and Feedback

Commentator (Mr. Fukutani): Thank you, Mr. Wada, for the presentation. Transforming a massive, legacy industry like real estate by unifying mountains of documents on the cloud, and extending integration to peripheral areas like insurance, is a fantastic business.

I have a question: recently, other services and in-house systems offering "electronic real estate contracts" have emerged. Compared to these, what is the most unique differentiator of RELYS?

Mr. Wada: Thank you for the question.

Currently, many other real estate tech platforms offering electronic contracts or customer relationship management (CRM) focus primarily on the "pre-contract phase"—that is, sales enablement SaaS designed to acquire customers and close deals.

In contrast, RELYS focuses on the "post-contract phase." We position ourselves as a "transaction platform" that digitalizes and smoothes the strict legal operations, document transfers, identity verification, and peripheral transactions (like insurance and loans) after the contract is signed. This positioning is our key differentiator.

Mr. Fukutani: Understood. You are not just focusing on acquisition, but hacking the entire complex transaction operation post-contract.

Also, since buying a home is a rare event for individuals, don't you face a challenge where users "cannot get used to" or "do not know how to use" the digital system?

Mr. Wada: That is true. Since real estate transactions are infrequent, there is a side where users tolerate inconveniences. Some also worry that people might not adapt to digital processes.

However, the main buyers (first-time homebuyers) are currently in their 30s—a digital-native generation. They actually feel strong stress (frustration) about why so much paper and physical stamping are still required today.

Furthermore, the practical benefits are massive. For example, simply digitizing the contract eliminates the revenue stamp tax (which costs tens of thousands of yen for paper contracts). Additionally, tedious subsequent tasks like fire insurance are resolved with a few taps on LINE. Because of these overwhelming convenience and financial benefits, we face almost no issues with user adoption, and customers are very happy to use our system.

Mr. Fukutani: Indeed, if it saves tens of thousands of yen and completes tedious tasks on a smartphone, there is no reason for users not to use it.

Given the increasing number of client companies, what is your marketing strategy for further expansion?

Mr. Wada: We are focusing on two major strategies.

The first is leveraging the network effect inherent in real estate "co-brokerage." In sales transactions, a major real estate firm (seller side) often acts as the primary agent, while a smaller firm (buyer side) brings in the buyer to complete the transaction together. When a major developer uses RELYS, the smaller brokerages involved in the transaction naturally interact with and use RELYS. We are designing network effects so that this exposure leads to new inbound inquiries.

The second strategy is targeting small and medium-sized brokers who struggle with heavy paperwork and administrative tasks, as well as new agents independent from large franchises. Because they lack the staff to handle massive contract administration, RELYS acts as a powerful solution by automating their workflows.

Mr. Fukutani: So you naturally involve the counterparty in transactions to spread the platform. That is the same network effect that Infomart used to dominate the B2B platform market, which I believe is a highly effective way to scale.

I look forward to your future value chain expansion and the new communication tools leveraging AI. Thank you very much.

Mr. Wada: Thank you very much.