Brookfield Ventures Backs VTS In Reportedly Largest Software Funding Round In CRE History
VTS, a PropTech company that offers commercial real estate leasing and asset management platforms, has obtained $90M in a Series D funding round. The company says the round is thought to be the largest venture financing for commercial real estate software.
Brookfield Ventures, the technology investment arm of Brookfield Asset Management and a VTS customer, led the round. Other new investors include industrial space giant GLP and Tishman Speyer, which are both also VTS customers, as well as previous investor Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm specializing in PropTech.
“This funding will allow us to continue what we set out to do from our inception, to bring the commercial real estate leasing management process full circle for all parties involved," VTS CEO Nick Romito said.
"Our customers’ investment and feedback is being used to propel the development of VTS’ technology both internationally and domestically, specifically through the launch of our offering truva,” Romito said.
Truva is an online leasing marketplace that VTS will launch this year.
Before this round of funding, New York-based VTS, which was founded in 2012 as View The Space, had raised more than $100M. Part of that was its Series C round about two years ago, when the company raised $55M. Not long afterward, VTS merged with competitor Hightower.
The Series D funding values the company at over $1B, reports The Wall Street Journal, adding it to the ranks of private "unicorn" startups valued at $1B or more. Only about 20 PropTech companies are large enough to be unicorns.
Other VTS clients include Blackstone, LaSalle Investment Management, Hines, Boston Properties, Oxford Properties, JLL and CBRE.
VTS allows brokers and landlords to manage deal activity, identify trends and quantify portfolio performance from a desktop computer or mobile device. The platform currently is used to manage more than 10B SF of commercial space, according to the company.
Last year, the company rolled out VTS MarketView, a tool that offers a big data-based view of trends in commercial real estate markets.
According to Romito, the company's portfolio of analytic platforms — including MarketView — offers enough granular data to know how much a building should cost, lease for, pay in overhead and expenses, and when an asset might face a drop in demand.
