Global Venture Fund joins syndicate of real estate owners and VCs backing the owner-specific project management platform
San Francisco (October 9, 2018) – JLL Spark, a division of JLL (NYSE: JLL), announced today an investment in Honest Buildings–the premiere project management platform built for and backed by real estate owners. The new investment will be used to help fuel Honest Buildings’ expansion into new international markets and deliver real estate owners with purpose built, enterprise grade platforms that will be instrumental to the future of the real estate industry.
JLL Spark’s investment closely follows the recent close of Honest Buildings’ Series B round of $30M, from industry investors including Brookfield Property Partners, Oxford Properties Group, The Durst Organization, DivcoWest Real Estate Investments, Rudin Ventures, First Capital Realty, QuadReal, Altus Group LTD, and C-III Capital Partners, in addition to leading venture capital funds Thrive Capital, Navitas Capital, Greensoil Building Innovation Fund, The Westly Group, Rockport Capital, and Circle Ventures. Total investment to date is $50 million and is comprised of a strategic group of leading owners and venture investors.
JLL uses Honest Buildings’ platform to manage total project value for institutional clients by centralizing project data, automating bid management, managing capital and standardizing reporting–resulting in increased transparency. “Investing in best-in-class technology like Honest Buildings is a big part of the JLL Spark Global Venture Fund strategy,” said Mihir Shah, Co-CEO of JLL Spark. “We are constantly looking to understand our clients’ ecosystems so that we can identify the greatest pain points and determine where technology can have the greatest impact. The level of value Honest Buildings has already brought to some of JLL’s most prominent owner clients is extremely high and this investment allows us to further ensure that JLL, and our clients, continue to benefit from transparency into capital and construction projects.”
Riggs Kubiak, founder and CEO of Honest Buildings, said, “The future of real estate tech requires a deep collaboration and integration between the real estate owners and the technology companies themselves. JLL is one of the largest services firms that we work with focused on owners globally and this partnership will further expand Honest Buildings’ global reach. Having JLL Spark on board only further validates that what we’re doing is bigger than just buildings — it’s the future of urban progress.”
This new investment will allow Honest Buildings to invest further in its product to continue to scale the company’s impact on progressing the urban landscape by empowering collaborative, data-driven decision making for commercial real estate owners. Additionally, Honest Buildings will continue its global expansion, starting with Australia and the UK.
About Honest Buildings
Honest Buildings enables leading real estate owners to unlock value from their assets. Global, national and local owners like Brookfield, Oxford Properties, Beacon Capital Partners, Hines, Invesco, SL Green, The Durst Organization, Silverstein Properties, JBG Smith, Harvest Properties, Parkway Properties, and Rudin Management are utilizing the power of the platform’s data-driven technology. The platform puts control of real estate capital planning and project data into the hands of real estate owners. By centralizing all projects portfolio-wide in Honest Buildings and moving workflows out of spreadsheets, construction projects are completed on time and on budget today, and owners can manage their capital deployment more strategically tomorrow. Ultimately this allows real estate owners to take the lead in driving urban expansion – currently a $10 trillion a year market – and how we live, work and play in cities in the future.
