Building foundations for venture scale: A conversation with JLL Spark’s Daniel Correa

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to the built environment. It’s dynamic, tangible, constantly evolving—and most of all, I’m fascinated by the fact that we live the majority of our lives within it. I also grew up around the industry, so I know firsthand how slow it can be to adopt innovation at scale, which leaves ample whitespace for disruption. 

Before joining JLL Spark Global Ventures, most of my career was spent as a startup operator at companies bringing something new and disruptive to real estate. In execution, I learned that successful disruption is driven by strategic partnership with the real estate establishment and that commercial real estate is predominantly owned by a relatively small group of institutional landlords and occupied by an equally concentrated set of enterprise tenants. Working with them tends to get you much further than working against them. That realization is what compelled me to join JLL Spark. 

What business line(s) do you support? 

I lead the fund’s relationship with JLL’s transaction businesses—Leasing Advisory, Capital Markets, and LaSalle Investment Management. Staying aligned with these groups and having a deep understanding of these businesses helps us identify relevant investments and position our portfolio companies for success across JLL and beyond after we invest. 

How does the Growth team create differentiation for JLL Spark with entrepreneurs? 

I am biased, but this is where our platform is truly unmatched. Our approach with a Growth team focuses on identifying venture-scale opportunities in the commercial and institutional corners of real estate, where JLL has overwhelming market share. We build bridges between founders and JLL’s platform with the goal of forming long-term partnerships and driving mutual growth. 

We also provide direct access to JLL’s deep bench of subject-matter experts and industry leaders—resources that are invaluable to our portfolio. While we may not be the right investor for every start-up in the built environment, I firmly believe we are unparalleled for companies with what we call “JLL Fit”: a strong alignment to institutional real estate workflows, stakeholders, and scale. 

What are examples of notable projects that have helped our portfolio companies scale within JLL or with JLL clients? 

I’m proud that we can point to multiple large-scale partnerships between our portfolio companies and JLL. 

• PRODA has become the rent-roll data standardization platform of choice for several JLL business lines globally. 

• qbiq has helped JLL Leasing and PDS generate more than 150 million square feet of floorplans using generative AI since our investment. 

• Dealpath, one of our earliest investments, has become the preferred deal management platform for LaSalle’s $88B+ portfolio. Our Capital Markets group is now working with them to change how investment sales deals are marketed to institutional clients. 

• At our best, JLL Spark creates value across multiple fronts, such as with EliseAI—where we are investors, clients via LaSalle’s residential portfolio, and JLL has been their leasing advisor of choice throughout their journey toward becoming an AI unicorn. 

These examples underscore the power of pairing start-ups with the scale and reach of JLL’s ecosystem. 

What are the challenges to scaling tech in a large corporation, and how have you been able to overcome them? 

In many cases, JLL is one of the first enterprise customers for our portfolio companies, so we work closely with early-stage founders to navigate complex transactions, pilots, and implementations. That level of engagement is critical to success and requires resources and patience that we are uniquely positioned to provide. 

How is JLL getting value from our portfolio companies’ technologies? 

JLL benefits systemically from being an early adopter of leading technology in our space. This is possible because of Spark as a fund and because of the strong foundation we’ve built to onboard, trial, distribute, and operationalize the right technologies across our organization and beyond, to our clients.  

Conclusion 

I am fortunate to love the work I do, and I find purpose in working alongside others that share my fascination for the built environment. I’m continually inspired by my talented peers at JLL and the relentlessly ambitious founders in our portfolio who are pushing the boundaries of our industry.  

Outside of work, I am the same curious observer who can’t help but study the cities I visit—their buildings, their public spaces, the way people move through them. I believe great cities, like great companies, are built through intentional collaboration and sustained momentum. 

Written by Daniel Correa, Growth Principal based in New York.

Interested in a strategic partnership with JLL Spark? Apply for an investment here.