JLL Spark Invests in the Future of Real Estate Tech
After years of being stuck in its brick-and-mortar ways, the real estate world is finally starting to face the music when it comes to cutting-edge tech. Ultimately this creates a lot of hands in the cookie jar, the hands in this case being a swarm of startups, all eager to become the biggest thing since Streeteasy. It goes without saying that making sense of this often-saturated new marketplace is certainly easier said than done.
To remedy this, in July of 2017, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) announced the creation of JLL Spark. A division of JLL, JLL Spark has dedicated itself to accelerating the growing real estate tech scene.
“Our goal is to accelerate JLL’s leadership when it comes to digital real estate services,” co-CEO Mihir Shah told Mann Report. “Ultimately we started JLL Spark because JLL recognized that tech would inevitably transform the commercial real estate scene. Our mission at Spark is to accelerate the adoption of transformative technology products.”
In order to make this mission a reality, JLL Spark recently announced the launch of its $100 million JLL Spark Global Venture Fund. The fund hopes to invest in and partner with entrepreneurs who are using technology to improve the real estate experience.
“Essentially, then, you have two sides: the investor and occupier side and the tech startup side,” Shah continued. “Having been entrepreneurs ourselves, we know how hard it is to bring a new product to market. So by tapping into JLL’s resources and coupling promising tech startups with our services and clients, we can help grow the startups and in turn create value for our clients.”
In this capacity, JLL Spark is especially focusing its energy on companies in their early stages, pairing them with investments that range from a few hundred thousand to several million dollars. JLL Spark takes an active role in the growth of these new companies as well, utilizing its resources and the resources of its parent company, JLL, to allow these new ventures to flourish.
“We have an experienced growth team of marketers who know how to connect startups with the right client,” Shah said. “We also plan to help our startups by creating building labs in top metros where they can fast track their product trials.”
That’s just the beginning—JLL Spark hopes to create value for its startups, and, in turn, the larger industry, by continuously investing in and promoting them.
“We’re extremely focused, and we want to invest in what we believe we can truly help,” Shah added.
The startup company that JLL looks to invest in is one composed of world-class entrepreneurs, and one that has a clearly defined, quantitative value. More importantly, it’s imperative for Shah and his team that this company has the potential to scale, and thus will produce tech that can be expanded and further built upon.
“What excites me the most is that we’re working with very talented entrepreneurs, and connecting them with customers is extremely gratifying and beneficial to the larger industry,” Shah said. “It’s amazing to see the acceleration in promising tech startups, even within the short 10 months that we’ve been in business.”
Indeed, there is a genuine acceleration in real estate tech startups. More and more investors have expressed interest in smart buildings, new apps, and other promising developments. That certainly wasn’t the case a few years ago.
JLL Spark has already begun cultivating its brave new world of real estate tech, as well. In March, the company acquired Stessa, a software-as-a-service-based real estate technology platform that allows investors in income properties to easily and cost-effectively track, manage, and communicate the performance of their portfolios. JLL Spark believed that Stessa increased the value of properties and that its innovation would fill a gap in the industry.
So what lies ahead for the San Francisco-based company? Needless to say, JLL Spark hopes to make Stessa only the first of many new Silicon Valley success stories.
“We want to seek out new companies to connect with our clients,” Shah concluded. “In five or 10 years, everything’s going to happen for real estate tech. We’re in the early innings now, but we’re building a strong foundation.”
For more information, please visit https://spark.jll.com.
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