Arnaud and Matteo built Alia to fix real estate's follow-up problem

About ALIA 

Arnaud and Matteo started Alia in September last year because they saw a clear problem in real estate. Agencies do not necessarily have a lead problem. They have a follow-up problem. 
 
Many future sales opportunities are already sitting in their databases. The real challenge is following up with every buyer, seller and visitor at the right moment. Alia handles this follow-up through WhatsApp, so agents can spend more time on conversations where their personal expertise matters. 

How Arnaud and Matteo met 

The two met a couple of years earlier. Matteo was working on a different project at the time and looking for a CTO. They immediately got along well, but it was not the right project or the right moment to work together, but they stayed in touch. When the idea for Alia came up, the timing felt right. Both recognized their skills lined up and decided to build it together. 

Babette, the teams venture acceleration coaches, picked up on that dynamic early: "Very driven, complementary team. It's always great to see a good interplay between a commercial and technical co-founder in the pitch."

She also pointed to the traction and focus behind the pitch: "Dozens of first clients, proven traction, a very clearly defined ICP... a super focused, AI-native solution in a fairly traditional market that's actively looking for innovation. Love this kind of verticalization!” 

25 agencies, 300,000 messages sent 

Since the beginning of this year, 25 real estate agencies, representing around 100 offices, have gone live with Alia. Together they've sent more than 300,000 WhatsApp messages through the platform for them, all aimed at opportunities already sitting in those agencies' own databases rather than leads bought or chased down elsewhere.  

Arnaud and Matteo built the product alongside their first clients and focusing on very concrete problems: confirming visits, following up afterward, answering recurring questions, and flagging opportunities agents might otherwise miss, based on what those teams actually needed. 

A plan to grow fourfold 

Arnaud and Matteo want to grow roughly fourfold over the next year. That starts in Belgium, working with some of the country's largest real estate groups and building CRM partnerships that let Alia reach agencies without becoming another separate tool they have to manage.  

From there, they want to take their first steps into France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, market by market, once the right clients, local partners and integrations are in place. 

Still just the two of them 

The org chart at Alia is short. Commercial, technical and operational work all still runs through the two founders. Their next hires, someone to lead sales and growth and someone to strengthen development, are about closing that gap. 

It's part of why they joined imec.istart: the coaching and network target exactly the questions they're facing for the first time, recruitment among them. An upcoming workshop on hiring landed at a good moment. 

Why they joined imec.istart 

Their main hesitation about joining was timing. Moving fast as a two-person founding team means every new commitment takes time and attention.  

What convinced them was that the program matches the challenges we are facing right now, such as recruitment, partnerships, company structure, and international growth.