Matthieu Merchadou, Co-Founder & CEO, Magma

Invest: spoke with Matthieu Merchadou, co-founder and CEO of Magma, about how verified building data can reduce friction in real estate, improve asset management, and support smarter cities. “Once information is validated and tied to the digital identity of the building, it becomes much more useful. It can support a sale, help a lender evaluate collateral, give an insurer better visibility into risk, or help a city manage permitting and compliance,” Merchadou said.

What problem is Magma trying to solve in real estate today?

Real estate is the largest asset class in the world, but it remains one of the least efficient when it comes to transferring ownership or verifying the condition of an asset. Selling a building can take months, while selling a stock or a bond can take seconds. The reason is that building information is scattered across many intermediaries, systems, and stakeholders, and all of that information has to be gathered and checked again whenever there is a transaction.

That creates a major inefficiency because a building may last 50, 80, or even 100 years, yet every time it is sold, financed, or leased, people have to prove its condition all over again. Our view is that each building should have a digital identity that follows it throughout its life cycle. If that information is continuously updated and validated, then owners, lenders, buyers, tenants, and cities can move much faster and with greater confidence.

Why is a verifiable digital identity more important than simply having better software tools?

There are already many software tools in real estate, but they are not connected to one another. There is little interoperability, so users still have to verify what is in one system against what is in another. Better software alone does not solve that fragmentation.

That is why we created the digital twin token. A digital twin gives you a 3D representation of a building, but you still need to validate that what you see reflects the real-world condition of the asset. Otherwise, it is only a model. The digital twin token compiles validated information tied to the building, from major systems and equipment to documents and operational data, and turns that into proof. What really has value is what you can prove about your building.

How does that change the way owners and other stakeholders use building information?

Once information is validated and linked to the digital identity of the building, it becomes much more useful. It can support a sale, help a lender evaluate collateral, give an insurer better visibility into risk, or help a city manage permitting and compliance. Instead of repeating the same due diligence over and over, stakeholders can work from a trusted, updated record of the asset.

It also improves day-to-day operations. If you know exactly what systems are in the building, their condition, their maintenance history, and their documentation, you can make better decisions around operations, resilience, and capital planning. That makes the building more transparent and easier to manage over time.

How do you approach adoption in an industry that can be cautious about new technology, especially when terms like blockchain create hesitation?

Many real estate owners and operators are reluctant to change because they associate technology with cost, complexity, and disruption. If the market is doing well, they often do not see a reason to adopt a new system. On top of that, once you mention blockchain or tokenization, many people immediately think about speculation or regulation that is not yet mature.

Our approach has been to focus on practical value. We have built a system that addresses real operational and regulatory needs, and we can confidently say that it is a comprehensive management tool for real estate. We are not trying to be a hype product. We are building something that can become a mainstream way to manage buildings through trusted data and better infrastructure.

What are the biggest challenges in getting stakeholders to contribute to a single source of truth?

The biggest challenge is participation. To create a true digital asset for a building, everyone who affects that building has to contribute in some way. If a plumber changes a pipe, that should be reflected in the model. If a legal document changes, that should be reflected in the data room. The difficulty is that most participants are used to completing their work, but not to delivering the result of that work as structured data.

A great deal of information still comes through email, PDFs, or disconnected systems. That means someone has to process it, store it, and try to retrieve it later. We had to help stakeholders understand that the way they report their work also has value. If they contribute information in a structured way, it saves time and reduces friction throughout the life of the building.

How do you encourage that participation in practice?

There are two main ways to do it. One is by rewarding participation. If someone contributes validated information to the platform, that contribution has value because it reduces future work for the owner or property manager. The other is by making participation mandatory. Some owners simply tell suppliers that in order to be paid, they need to upload the right documentation and information into the platform.

Either way, the objective is the same. The data created through day-to-day work should not disappear into inboxes or folders. It should become part of the building’s long-term digital record.

Magma’s vision extends beyond individual properties. When does it become city-scale infrastructure?

We designed Magma as infrastructure rather than just software. It can operate at the building level, but it can also support city-level use cases. For example, cities could use the same type of validated digital asset for permits, inspections, and compliance. A building owner could submit a 3D model as part of a permit request, the city could review and validate that model, and the completed work could then be tied back into the same digital record.

Once that happens across many properties, cities can connect building-level information at scale. That allows them to run simulations, benchmark performance, identify issues more precisely, and plan energy strategies more effectively. At that point, the value goes far beyond a single asset and starts to shape how the built environment is managed more broadly.

What kinds of decisions can be automated or significantly improved once that trusted data layer is in place?

Permitting is one clear example. If you have a reliable digital model of a building and connect it to code requirements, you can assess much more quickly what changes are possible, whether that means adding a story, modifying a wall, or expanding usable space. AI can help speed up those compliance checks.

Energy management is another major opportunity. If you connect building systems and sensors, you can analyze how temperature, occupancy, and usage patterns affect energy consumption. By adjusting heating, cooling, and lighting based on real conditions, owners can significantly lower their energy bills. There is also strong potential in predictive maintenance, where sensors help detect abnormal vibration, heat, or humidity before equipment fails.

Beyond that, AI can support lease management, contract monitoring, and operational notifications. Once reliable building data exists in one place, many decisions that used to be manual and reactive can become faster and more efficient.

How do you see Magma’s role in the future of tokenization and broader access to real estate investment?

A lot of people talk about tokenization as a way to fractionalize ownership of real estate, but for that to work well, buyers need trustworthy information about the actual asset. In the past, people were often buying into a company that held title to a property without having enough visibility into the condition, costs, and risks of the building itself.

What we are doing is connecting the digital representation of the building and its validated real-world information to that financial layer. That creates a stronger foundation for tokenization because the buyer has access to the information needed to make a real estate decision, not just a financial one. We are helping bridge the gap between the physical asset, the ownership structure, and the market.

What has to happen for this model to become more widely used?

The challenge is not whether the new system can do the job. It can do the same things as the old system, but faster, more efficiently, and in a way that opens real estate to more people. The real challenge is helping traditional market participants make the shift. Brokers, financial advisors, owners, and other professionals need to understand how to use these tools and why they matter.

We are still early, but the direction is clear. Around the world, cities and companies are thinking about how to build infrastructure that works with trustworthy data, especially as AI becomes more important. If AI is going to play a real role in real estate, it has to run on validated information. That is why this transition matters, and why this kind of infrastructure will become increasingly important.