Launched in early 2020, kodehyve aims to accelerate the development of commercial and residential real estate projects by improving the collaboration between the numerous participants in the market. After successfully raising €1m in seed financing in the spring of 2021 and offering its data-driven infrastructure to a growing number of clients, kodehyve has reached a new milestone in the development of its sector-specific suite of digital tools: the launch of an e-signature platform that is set to become the industry standard for reviewing, editing, and signing legally binding documents in the Luxembourgish market.

A secure and fully eIDAS-compliant solution for making legal paperwork easier

Based on extensive customer research, kodehyve has identified e-signatures and the digital handling of legal documents in a compliant way to be two of the most pressing needs among real estate professionals. The real estate ecosystem called for a solution that optimally connects all stakeholders, enabling users to manage and approve documentation online in a secure, transparent, and collaborative manner while also ensuring that all required legal information is provided. In partnership with the Real Estate Chamber of Luxembourg (Chambre Immobilière du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, CIGDL), kodehyve has developed an e-signature platform that caters to the particular needs of property developers, agencies, architectural and engineering firms, end-customers, and subcontractors alike.

One of the key elements that differentiates the newly launched solution from existing e-signature platforms is the possibility for users to use predefined documents that are approved and legally certified by CIGDL. Kodehyve’s e-signature platform for the real estate sector ensures full compliance under existing European Union (EU) laws, adhering to the "electronic identification, authentication, and trust services" (eIDAS) regulation for electronic signatures and transactions in the EU internal market.

“Our team at kodehyve is building the operating system for the real estate sector. With the suite of tools that our plug-and-play infrastructure platform already offered, developing a solution for e-signatures was the next logical step for us. We are more than excited to be able to now serve and empower the 250+ members of Chambre Immobilière in Luxembourg with a state-of-the-art digital tool that combines a smooth user experience with the stability and security of our partners Amazon Web Services and LuxTrust.” - Felix Hemmerling, Co-Founder, CEO, andChairman of kodehyve

Numerous advantages for all stakeholders in the market

By using kodehyve’s sector-specific e-signature platform, real estate professionals can upload their own contracts and templates when signing agreements in addition to using a wide range of standardised contracts officially certified by the CIGDL. Access to pre-approved documents and associated workflows are two of the main advantages the new e-signature platform offers its users. Additionally, the modular platform includes holistic audit trails, which guarantee the traceability of all changes made and steps taken when managing documentation. Overall, the e-signature platform guarantees equal access to legal documents and a simplification of required procedures for all stakeholders within the Luxembourgish real estate ecosystem, including real estate funds, engineering offices, insurance companies, banks, and governmental authorities, ultimately setting a new industry standard.

“Last year, we reached out to kodehyve with the goal to streamline and simplify the process of signing legal documents. Today, we are proud to announce the launch of a digital platform that was created in collaboration with Amazon Web Services and LuxTrust, which saves the real estate market in Luxembourg considerable amounts of time, reduces errors, and also benefits the environment. All stakeholders in our industry can from now on work with more confidence, knowing that their documents are processed in a simpler but still compliant and secure way, increasing the quality of our whole ecosystem.” - Jean-Paul Scheuren, President of CIGDL

By rolling out the e-signature platform in the Luxembourgish market, all parties involved in a real estate transaction or development project can from now on significantly speed up and optimise their processes in a secure and compliant way while also protecting the environment: more than 170 kg of wood, 4,000 litres of water, and 400 kg of CO2 are saved when handling 500+ documents digitally. According to kodehyve user data, using a streamlined e-signature process instead of handling documents offline saves real estate professionals an average of 16-24€ in costs per transaction, improves productivity by more than 85%, and reduces errors due to incomplete data by up to 80%.

Leading players join forces for a new industry standard

For developing its standardised e-signature platform in collaboration with CIGDL, kodehyve chose to work with two other market-leading organisations: The digital tool is built on the cloud infrastructure of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and also uses existing services by online identification solutions provider LuxTrust. Using AWS for hosting and AWS serverless technologies, which includes different programming languages such as S3, Cognito, Amplify, and DynamoDB, enables kodehyve to leverage a state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure that ensures technical stability, security, scalability, and 99.99% server uptime. By adding LuxTrust’s well established online identification solutions, real estate professionals can rely on a simple and advanced e-signature without actually needing a LuxTrust certificate to sign, thereby accommodating transactions for both local as well as international signatories. The LuxTrust “e-seal” adds a key component to the platform by disabling the possibility of altering documents after they were signed, adding an extra layer of security and user confidence.

Leveraging its expertise in user experience (UX) design and digital product development, kodehyve tops off the new industry standard for signing legally binding documents for all members of CIGDL and the whole Luxembourgish real estate sector by making the tool user-friendly for signatories based in and outside of the country. While being accessible to users of all ages, kodehyve’s e-signature platform serves especially the needs and expectations of digital-savvy younger generations that increasingly push into the market on either side of the table.

The standardised solution will be continually refined and extended in close collaboration with CIGDL and based on the feedback by its members. As Luxembourg is one of the most diverse and multi-linguistic countries in the world, the e-signature platform is currently available in English, French, German and Luxembourgish. Portuguese and other languages will be added to the platform shortly.

“The e-signature platform developed by kodehyve and CIGDL is a great milestone for the continued digital transformation of an important economic sector in Luxembourg. It is with great pleasure that LuxTrust is providing some of its long-standing online security and identification services to this solution that is set to increase the efficiency and quality of the whole local market.” - Fabrice Aresu, CEO of LuxTrust

“Launching this ambitious online solution for an entire industry perfectly illustrates how a variety of market-leading experts can come together, form synergies, and accelerate the digital development of various stakeholders by leveraging the latest software technologies. At AWS, it is our mission to support innovative companies with our cloud solutions, enabling them to build the future. It is kodehyve’s goal to transform the real estate market by making it substantially more digital. By providing new industry standards like the e-signature platform, they are getting one big step closer, and we are glad to play a role in that.”- Veronica Ostring, AWS Account Manager