Author: JLL Spark

Raj Singh is looking to invest in construction robotics. That’s not head-turning news for the head of a typical venture capital firm, but that’s not where he works. 

Singh is a San Francisco-based managing director of JLL Spark, the technology investment arm of the Fortune 500 commercial real estate services giant that can trace parts of its company back to 1783. It’s not exactly an obvious move for JLL, primarily known for brokering office sales and leases. To Singh, however, it makes perfect sense.

“There’s only two strategies in the world: bundling and unbundling,” he said. “We’re currently going through a bundling phase. Our scope has expanded greatly, we’re looking at things much more far afield.”

Venture capital funding for proptech companies hit a record in the first half of 2021, and the momentum is expected to continue.

The nation’s biggest brokerages have invested almost $1.5B in proptech deals over the past 10 years. They know the world is changing, they know they need to stay ahead of that change, and they have put up real money to invest in the future. But what has that investment actually bought them?

Citing a “significant opportunity to scale adoption” amid the growth of hybrid working, JLL Spark has co-led a $9m fundraising round for software that connects access control across buildings around the world.

Funding in the PropTech space is continuing at a feverish pace, and although VCs still contribute the lion’s share of the dollars being invested, the secret sauce to success may come in the form of strategic investors;  specifically, investors who operate large businesses that can utilize the solution of the company that they are investing in.  Think about a portfolio owner that has 30 commercial buildings totaling 15,000,000 square feet.  If they invest in a company that has a solution that can be deployed throughout their portfolio, they can nearly guarantee the success of the company by acting not only as an investor, but also as the company’s largest customer.

The number of real estate technology startups has increased 300% over the past decade, seizing the opportunity to address the industry’s biggest challenges through technology. Data released today by JLL (NYSE: JLL) suggests that opportunity continues to abound in the sector’s startup landscape, with US$9.7 billion of funding activity in the first half of 2021, the most active first half on record. Additionally, the market shows signs of maturation as funding begins to shift toward established players and increasing consolidation drives the emergence of industry leaders.

Commercial real estate tenants and property managers have to abide by strict liability rules that any vendor entering the property must have insurance certificates and meet other requirements. The approval process for this currently can take days and is still largely done on paper.

Enter Jones. The New York-based commercial real estate startup is curating a marketplace of pre-approved vendors for tenants and property managers to find and hire the people they need in a compliant way.

To continue advancing its network, the company announced Monday it raised $12.5 million in Series A funding led by JLL Spark and Khosla Ventures that also included strategic investors Camber Creek, Rudin Management, DivcoWest and Sage Realty. This new investment brings Jones’ total raised to $20 million, according to Crunchbase data.