Louis Baugier, a JP Morgan and RXR Realty alum, launched Surecave, a NYC-based real estate technology company that has developed an app that allows both commercial and residential landlords/ property owners to better manage their business—everything from finding tenants to managing multiple properties, and even allows renters to pay rent in cryptocurrencies.
The company has raised over $1 million from real estate companies that include First Midwest Group, an Illinois-based real estate company with over 10,000 commercial, residential, and mixed-use properties in its portfolio; TransUnion, Remax; and Silverback Development, an active New York City development company; and other venture capital firms, including one of the largest publicly traded real estate owner/operators in the United States that prefers to be a silent partner.
Surecave’s proprietary software enables property owners/managers to better communicate in real-time with tenants.
Baugier explained that Surecave’s technology is designed to improve and build performance, tenant satisfaction, and manager reliability, and simplify essential property management tasks such as sending and tracking payments, executing maintenance requests, digitizing the application process, and accepting rent payments in cryptocurrencies. It also gives tenants the online ability to buy everything from insurance to kitchenware from Surecave affiliates.
“Managers who don’t offer a renter-friendly solution will have higher vacancies and unhappy tenants—tenants who tire of the same painful rental experience,” said Baugier, who developed the app when he saw the property management industry was in dire need of technological innovation.
Working at JPMorgan and RXR Baugier took what he learned about the industry. Armed with entrepreneurial fever he knocked on doors of forward-thinking real estate investors like Josh Schuster, managing principal at Silverback Development, to help raise enough funds to seed a beta product.
Surecave recently also announced a Chinese investor plans to license the technology and deliver it to high value Southeast Asian markets, beginning with Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Baugier began his career in the Global Real Estate Portfolio Management group at JPMorgan Chase group where his first project was the Hudson Yards relocation initiative. While at JPMorgan Chase, he was responsible for underwriting and evaluating portfolio strategies across a number of different asset classes and geographies.
At RXR Realty, Baugier gleaned valuable insight into the fragmented process of property, and subsequently, asset management. Baugier was the fourth hire on a development platform managing $3.3 billion of inflight projects. During his time at RXR, he and his group oversaw the closing of over $1 billion in new developments.
“Managing a property is difficult due to the number constituencies involved, but aligning them on a platform where everyone has something to gain has powerfully resounded with our clients,” said Baugier, who is confident Surecave can differentiate itself in the emerging real estate technology space.
Baugier grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut before graduating from Tulane University. He is a member of the New York Private Equity Network Real Estate Group, the Lumen Institute, YPONextGen and the Urban Land Institute.
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