Since raising over US $ 1 billion with his real estate technology and pre-fabricated structures company Revolution Precrafted, Filipino real estate mogul and art connoisseur Robbie Antonio has ambitions to become the greatest global supplier of designer houses. Prestige talks to the youngest person to be on Forbes’ list of the 50 Richest in the Philippines for 2018. Here are five essential facts you need to know from our October coverage!
1. He has a solid experience in real estate.
With his work in his family’s Century Properties, Robbie Antonio solidified the 32-year-old company’s status as a go-to developer for high-profile brand collaborations, such as the Acqua Livingstone dressed by Missoni Home, the Azure Urban Resort Residences by Paris Hilton and Trump Tower Manila.
Robbie holds an economics degree from Northwestern University and an MBA from Stanford University. Her first real estate project after graduation, and also her big hiatus, is the 19-story Centurion condominium designed by IM Pei in Manhattan.
2. His company, Revolution Precrafted, is officially the first unicorn of the Philippines.
If you’re unfamiliar with tech lingo, unicorn status means a tech company valued at US $ 1 billion or more and that’s been the goal of founder Robbie Antonio since he created Revolution Precrafted in December. 2015. He raised Series B funds through the Singapore-based venture capital firm K2 Global last October – Southeast Asia’s fastest company succeeded in doing so. In addition, the company subsequently raised $ 8.5 billion in revenue from consolidated projects in 25 (and more) countries; it is behind homes and structures in North and South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In March, he signed a $ 3.2 billion deal to design and build villas and apartments on The World Islands in Dubai. All of this earned the 41-year-old the “2018 Philippines Real Estate Personality of the Year” award.
3. Revolution Precrafted is the sum of all his passions: architecture, art, technology and design.
With his background in real estate and his interest in art and technology, Robbie has studied the similarities between start-ups like Airbnb to crack their code to success. One of his inspirations was the French metallurgist, designer and architect Jean Prouvé, who is best known for his work on prefabricated portable structures in the 1930s and 1940s, when mass production capacities took off, as did demand. affordable housing that could be built quickly and easily transported. Part of the reason Revolution Precrafted launched was the continual requests it received from people to see his “Stealth” home designed by Rem Koolhaas.
“I said, you know what I will do something better, I will do something for you, and at a very affordable price.”
And that’s what it did, Revolution Precrafted is now retailing worldwide with its prefabricated modular homes and structures, designed by some 80 industry titans – including Zaha Hadid, Ron Arad, Jean Nouvel, Tom Dixon, Marcel Wanders, Sou Fujimoto, Kengo Kuma, the Campana brothers, etc. The company’s regional manufacturing plants or local contractors would install the buildings once the cargo arrived.
“It’s crazy… it was quite shocking. It’s all black concrete – and I live in a very conservative society. I chose Rem because I find him to be one of the more intellectual minds. It is very academic, and it is also very practical. Talking about obsession… I sent him 35,000 architectural images and research material, specifying what I wanted, what I don’t like – I almost co-designed it, ”he said.
5. His love for art began while a student in New York City.
Art has been an integral part of Robbie Antonio’s life since his days in New York City, when he lived surrounded by the Met, MoMA, Whitney and Guggenheim; auctions of works of art; and the best collectors. And the emotional and imaginative quality of art offers a welcome respite from the analytical demands of his work. “I spend my day and my executive committee meetings are all about numbers – revenue, profit – and then I head to an extremely different meeting where it’s about the creative process, and that’s what interests me, that balance. in life, ”he says. “The juxtaposition of the two and the amalgamation of the two – I like to be [in a position where I understand both worlds]. “
In addition, his interest in art goes beyond simple auctions and acquisitions. Another company that Robbie Antonio occupies is the $ 1.1 billion Batulao Artscapes, located on the outskirts of Manila. There he plans to build four thematic art museums designed by the Pritzker laureates, as well as some 8,600 vacation and retirement homes. The concept was inspired by Naoshima in southern Japan, where the entire island is full of museums and facilities, and buildings designed by Tadao Ando and Kazuhiro Ishii. And even as Revolution Precrafted takes off and Batulao Artscapes is in development, Antonio has possible projects in mind outside of real estate – fintech, medical tech, and tech concepts that could be deployed regionally.
Read the full interview with Robbie Antonio in the Prestige October issue, available at all major bookstores in Thailand.
Comments are closed.