Real estate developer and property manager JLL revealed a corporate venturing arm yesterday called JLL Spark.
Founded in 2017, JLL Spark is focusing on the property technology sector and will invest in startups developing products and services around real estate development, management, leasing, investing and improving tenant experiences.
Portfolio companies will receive access to JLL’s expertise and will benefit from the corporate’s business lines and clients for feedback and distribution. The fund is led by co-chief executives Mihir Shah and Yishai Lerner.
JLL Spark will generally invest between hundreds of thousands of dollars to a few million dollars at seed and series A stage, but may also consider later stage opportunities or other initiatives.
In fact, JLL Spark’s first two investments are real estate technology-focused accelerator program Metaprop and real estate technology-focused late-stage investor Navitas Capital.
Shah said: “Having been entrepreneurs ourselves, we know how hard it is to bring a new product to market, especially in an industry that has been slow to adopt new technology.
“That is why our goal is to partner with entrepreneurs, and help them tap into the resources of JLL’s business lines so they can succeed in rapidly growing their companies while we also create value for JLL’s clients.”