SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RealtyShares, a leading online marketplace for real estate investing, today announced it has raised $28 million in Series C financing from Cross Creek Advisors, Danhua Capital, Barry Sternlicht (Founder of Starwood Capital and Starwood Resorts) and Bow Capital, along with prior investors Union Square Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and Menlo Ventures.
In a market space involving a multitude of players, RealtyShares has emerged as one of the industry's most diverse real estate investment platform, deploying $500 million across more than 1,000 real estate opportunities in 39 states, as of this summer. Fueled by more than 120,000 registered users and a growing list of institutional partners, the company has quickly established itself as an industry leader. Now, RealtyShares is bringing its technical excellence to bear on scaling full capital stack commercial solutions, with over $242 million deployed across more than 120 commercial debt and equity projects in the last year alone.
“In a few short years we’ve developed a thriving marketplace, giving developers a fast and flexible capital source, while offering individual and institutional investors unprecedented access to high quality investments,” said RealtyShares Founder and CEO Nav Athwal. “Middle-market commercial real estate comprises the majority of commercial real estate transactions, but it’s one of the last frontiers to be disrupted by technology. The new partners we’re bringing on in this round have significant experience transforming old industries, and can help us deepen our focus on the severely underserved commercial financing market.”
This investment brings the pioneering startup’s total capital raised to-date to $60 million and adds (among others) four particularly prominent new investors:
- Cross Creek Advisors, specializing in high-quality late stage companies and top-tier venture capital funds. The firm has over $525 million under management, and their investments include Angie’s List, DocuSign, Lifelock, HubSpot, Ticketfly, and Care.com.
- Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Starwood Capital Group, a private investment firm focused on global real estate, hotel management, oil and gas, and energy infrastructure.
- Danhua Capital, a Chinese venture capital fund that invests in growth stage companies and disruptive technology, with investments in Optimizely, Chariot, Airware, and high caliber limited partners like Alibaba Group.
- Bow Capital, the venture arm of Sacramento Kings Owner and technology visionary Vivek Ranadivé, funding technology companies that advance society and make the world a better place.
“We have watched data and technology transform a broad range of industries, and RealtyShares is reinventing the way in which real estate investments are traditionally made,” said Cross Creek Advisors Managing Director Tyler Christenson. “In our diligence, we identified RealtyShares as a leading disrupter in virtualizing real estate transactions into a democratized marketplace.”
Over the last six months, RealtyShares has aggressively assembled the infrastructure to transform the commercial financing market, welcoming Edward Forst (former CEO of Cushman and Wakefield) as a new board member, and Keri Findley (former partner at Third Point) and Joseph Azelby (senior partner at Apollo and former CEO of JP Morgan’s Global Real Assets Group) as advisors. The purchase of Acquire Real Estate, an innovative rival that has set a bar for product development within the industry, and a partnership with leading residential lender Lima One Capital has set the stage for RealtyShares to help permanently shift the way real estate is investing is handled in both the online and offline worlds.
About RealtyShares
RealtyShares is transforming the real estate investment landscape by connecting borrowers and sponsors to debt and equity capital from accredited and institutional investors, across an array of financing products. Private investments are highly illiquid and risky and are not suitable for all investors. Through the RealtyShares website, these investors can browse investment opportunities, perform due diligence, invest online and gain 24/7 access to an investor dashboard to watch how their investments are performing. RealtyShares offers securities through North Capital Private Securities Corporation, member FINRA/SIPC. For more information on how to become a real estate investor or to seek capital through the RealtyShares marketplace, please visit www.realtyshares.com.
