JLL Spark as Your Strategic Partner

Blog Post

In the world of corporate venture capital, JLL Spark Global Ventures stands out as the leading innovation platform within commercial real estate (CRE). Unique among our peers in both strategy and structure, JLL Spark continues to be a key strategic partner to disruptive PropTech startups.  

How exactly are we different?  

For starters, JLL is our sole capital partner, so we focus on investing in strategically relevant technology to optimize for the needs of the core business. This means that even within the sphere of PropTech, we focus on investing in startups that cater to the more commercial tranche of the real estate asset class. While we may not be the right investor for every kind of PropTech startup, when we do identify technology with what we call the “JLL fit,” we are arguably one of the most valuable venture partners in the industry. 

How do we add value to our portfolio companies? 

Naturally, having JLL as an investor brings real estate credibility to any startup, but we’re committed to going far beyond just providing our portfolio companies with capital. As a truly strategic investor, we provide our startups with access to JLL’s global presence, clients, industry knowledge, and resources. To facilitate this, we’ve built what we call our Growth Team, to work directly with our portfolio companies and provide dedicated tactical support on navigating the nuances of working with a 100,000+ employee organization. During the onboarding process, a Growth team member is appointed to work directly with our portfolio founders to identify and execute a path toward success within JLL. One of our main goals is to develop a mutually beneficial channel partnership between our startups and a pertinent team within the core business. An example of this is Spark’s introduction of OpenSpace to our Project & Development Services business (PDS) where we leverage site documentation technology to drive efficiency and transparency in our construction project management practice. 

Why should PropTech startups partner with JLL Spark? 

With JLL’s foundation dating back to the late 1700s, today we operate as a leading real estate professional services firm and investment manager across more than 90 countries. The Spark fund is part of our continuing commitment to innovation, leveraging our particularly favorable position to scale the adoption of disruptive technologies in our industry. This presents a massive growth opportunity for current and future portfolio companies, often helping refine a startup’s go-to-market strategy. This is certainly the case with Infogrid’s partnership with our integrated facilities management (IFM) service line, where we’re implementing smart building/IoT deployments to create a data-driven approach to facilities maintenance. 

At JLL Spark, we’re dedicated to investing and growing best in class tech startups that drive CRE lifecycle innovation. Our mission as a strategic partner is to be a bridge between emerging PropTech startups and the multitude of stakeholders within CRE. To date, our strategic investments have granted JLL the ability to provide innovative products to real estate owners and operators. Notable instances of this include JLLT’s strategic partnership with HqO as our preferred workplace experience platform, and our use of Saltmine’s cloud-based platform for dynamic workplace design. This kind of synergy is what we strive towards; delivering value to our clients and driving growth for our startups. 

Written by Daniel Correa, growth associate

Interested in a strategic partnership with JLL Spark Global Ventures? Apply here.