Real Estate Tech Now Targeting Institutional Investors

The slew of technology start-ups targeting the real estate sector continues, with a new real estate investment vehicle based in New York giving a hint of things to come.

Cadre is a technology-driven real estate investing platform that provides institutional investors with access to  quality real estate opportunities.

“We’re looking to provide greater access to thoroughly institutional deal flow,” Ryan Williams, co-founder and CEO of Cadre, told New York real estate new site The Real Deal.

Through the platform, investors can select specific deals rather than put their money into funds or real estate investment trusts, which don’t allow them to pick transactions.

The concept is similar to newly-launched Australian website 

crowdfundUP which is targeted more at the private, non-institutional investor market.

According to The Real Deal, Cadre has raised $18.3 million in its Series A round, led by Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, and General Catalyst Partners, a venture firm whose investments include Snapchat and Airbnb.

Some of New York real estate’s biggest players, including the city’s largest commercial landlord, have also bet on the startup.

Though Cadre has been in “stealth beta mode,” investors – including family offices and sovereign funds — have already invested $50 million worth of deals through it.

The number of real estate tech startups continues to snowball in the US, with new companies sprouting in fields ranging from leasing to market intelligence, and from crowdfunding to visualization.

Since 2012, it is estimated that US investors have poured more than $800 million into the space.

In Australia, the same trend is evident with a steady flow of potentially disruptive tech startups, including two new websites earlier this month that will help to open up new markets for home sales.

Pioneering online real estate investment platform,

BrickX, and Mandarin-language mortgage comparison website,

chengdai.com.au, will both bring buyers into the market who otherwise faced substantial obstacles.

The BrickX platform will enable wholesale investors to acquire shares in individual properties by trading “bricks”, which are interests in trusts that hold individual properties, for as little as $66 per brick.

Meanwhile, N1 Finance, a mortgage brokerage based in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, has made it easier for Mandarin-speakers to buy, by creating the first Australian mortgage comparison site in Mardarin.

www.chengdai.com.au will offer rate comparisons for more than 30 lenders.