ULI: MOD wins the PropTech Innovation Challenge 2026 in Switzerland
AI platform brings prefabrication into planning at an early stage and strengthens cost, schedule and planning security
MOD has won the fourth edition of the ULI PropTech Innovation Challenge (PIC) in Switzerland. The Zurich-based company is developing an AI-supported platform that allows project developers and architects to test the potential for the use of prefabricated building elements in the early planning phases and to identify and combine suitable providers and their products. The aim is to integrate prefabrication more easily and systematically into conventionally planned construction projects and thus to build faster, more economically and more sustainably.
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is launching the PropTech Innovation Challenge across Europe to make innovative and scalable solutions to key challenges in the real estate industry visible and to promote exchange between established market participants, start-ups and the technology world. The initiative, initiated by the ULI Young Leaders, will focus on resilience in the real estate industry in 2026. Solutions were sought that would help make the built environment more resilient to economic, environmental and social pressures.
MOD convinced the Swiss jury of experts with a globally unique approach that integrates the possibilities of prefabrication into the planning and decision-making process much earlier. The AI platform, designed with the University of Stanford, ETH Zurich and TU Munich, automatically analyzes designs and compares required building elements and quantities, such as walls, stairwells, bathrooms or floor ceilings, with hundreds of products from prefabrication companies in the area. Among other things, technical parameters, production capacity, availability, delivery distances and costs are taken into account. Project developers and their architects and planners can thus compare different variants at a time when essential decisions can still be influenced.
In this way, MOD addresses key challenges of the construction and real estate industry: rising construction costs, long project durations and limited capacities. The early examination of different prefabrication options is intended to make data-based decisions, reduce risks and increase transparency in the planning and procurement process.
Marc Beermann, co-founder and CEO of MOD: “The share of prefabrication in construction is less than three percent globally, although the industry and politicians agree that industrialized construction methods are the only way to build substantially faster, more economically and more sustainably. So far, however, prefabrication has come into play too late in many projects, often only when essential planning decisions have already been made. With MOD, we enable builders to bring this decision to the forefront. We create transparency at a very early stage about which ready-made solutions are suitable for a project, which providers are available and what effects different variants have on costs and implementation. Our projects show a potential savings of more than 10% in construction costs just by integrating prefabrication into the design and smarter orchestration of the supply chain. This is exactly where we contribute to increasing resilience in project development: making better, data-based decisions earlier, reducing costs and risks as the project progresses. We are very pleased that this approach convinced the ULI jury.”
The jury evaluated the submitted solutions based on three key criteria: potential impact, degree of innovation, and likelihood of market launch or adaptation. This year’s challenge focused on actionable, scalable and competitive innovations that promote resilient business models and help keep real estate viable and competitive in the long term.
Sabine Georgi, Managing Director of ULI in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: “Resilience in the real estate industry is increasingly determined by how early we identify risks and how flexibly we can react to changing conditions. In construction in particular, there is enormous potential in greater industrialization and prefabrication. MOD starts at a crucial point: The company is already bringing the possibilities of prefabrication into a phase in which project developers and planners actually still have choices. Combining data, artificial intelligence, and broad access to vendors creates greater transparency and can help reduce cost, schedule, and supply chain risks. MOD thus shows very concretely how digital innovation can make the construction and real estate industry more resilient. I would like to congratulate Marc Beermann and the entire MOD team on winning the Swiss PropTech Innovation Challenge.”
The PIC will run in two phases across Europe and will start in 2026 with seven regional competitions: CEE with Poland and the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece and Cyprus, Spain and Portugal, Switzerland, and Great Britain and Ireland. The finalists of each region will present their solutions to the respective national ULI PIC jury committees. As the Swiss winner, MOD qualifies for the pan-European Grand Final in September 2026. The pan-European winner will be announced at the C Change Summit on 5 November 2026 in Dublin .
In Switzerland, this year’s PIC will be led by Robin Odermatt, Acquisition & Sales, R2Partners, and Daniyal Mohtashamian, Transaction Manager, Avobis Real Estate AG. Both contribute their experience and expertise to the design and implementation of the initiative.
Jury members of the PIC in Switzerland 2026
(in alphabetical order)Urs Baumann, ULI Switzerland ChairChristopher el Hayek, Associate Director, CBRE, Young Leader Chair SwitzerlandSabine Georgi, Executive Director ULI DACHDaniyal Mohtashamian, Transaction Manager, Avobis Real Estate AGRobin Odermatt, Acquisition & Sales, R2PartnersJelena Radovic, Head Real Estate Transaction, ImpleniaBirgit Rahn-Werner, CEO – Indivise Group AGNathalie Rössler, ULI NEXT ChairHeinz Schwyter, Owner of Blog proptechnews.ch and PropTech Map SwitzerlandLars Sommerer, Managing Director Director, Swiss – Prop Tech
