Laurent Grill’s first foray into the startup world was in 2009, when he helped build an early-stage company that focused on music education technology.
This “crash course” in raising venture capital money led to his next endeavour in the video streaming space, which was followed by a stint at a tech-enabled company in the food catering business. Grill landed at Zeel.com, where he spent the next two years running the west coast operations of the health and wellness company and then advising for another six years.
In 2015, Grill helped to build Luma Launch, a pre-seed and seed-stage fund, investing in more than 40 generalist software companies. After analysing industry trends during the covid-19 pandemic, he explored a fundraise at the intersection of fintech, commerce and proptech, landing him in front of Jones Lang LaSalle, the US Global real estate services company. Recognising the opportunity to create lasting impact, Grill joined JLL Spark, the corporate venture arm of JLL, as a partner in 2021.
“Laurent has added portfolio management, people management and corporate skillsets at an impressive pace, positioning him for a long and successful career in CVC.”
Since joining, “Laurent has not only continued to invest in exciting proptech startups that are changing how real estate is used, but he has also added portfolio management, people management and corporate skillsets at an impressive pace, positioning him for a long and successful career in CVC,” says Raj Singh, managing partner at JLL Spark.
JLL Spark Global Ventures invests out of its fourth fund of $100m, focusing on seed to series B investments and prefers to lead rounds with cheques averaging between $1m and $5m. The team invests globally in “everything that touches the built world, where we feel we can be influential and valuable to the founders and portfolio companies,” says Grill. “We are blessed with the fact that we actually do have a remarkable amount of autonomy that allows us a real chance at being a good venture capital fund.”