Recently, JLL Spark, a division of Jones Lang LaSale (JLL), announced its acquisition of Stessa, a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based real estate technology platform—an investment that bolsters the company’s position as catalyst for change in the real estate industry.
As a technology platform, Stessa allows investors in income properties to easily and cost-effectively track, manage and communicate the performance of their portfolios.
This move, according to a statement by the company, is the first strategic acquisition by JLL Spark since its inception and delivers on its mission to transform the real estate industry through technology-based innovation.
JLL, a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management, has structured JLL Spark to operate independently and without the typical constraints of most corporate ‘innovation’ or venture arms, providing the nimbleness and speed of a startup backed by JLL’s expertise and resources.
JLL Spark is led by Mihir Shah and Yishai Lerner, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs with successful track records building and investing in tech companies, who have a direct line to the global CEO. It complements JLL, allowing JLL’s core business to be more productive and drive competitive advantage.
“Optimizing a real estate portfolio can involve tedious manual effort, which is why many investors see suboptimal returns,” said Mihir Shah, co-CEO at JLL Spark, adding, “we chose Stessa as our first acquisition because its innovative product fills a gap in the market for small-to- medium investors.”
Shah explained that, “built by real estate investors for real estate investors, Stessa makes real estate asset management as easy as traditional investment categories like equities, pointing out that while many tools provide straightforward valuation, performance benchmarking, real-time analysis and ongoing optimization to equity investors, little existed in real estate.
“Stessa’s platform solves this problem, providing property owners with real-time views into their holdings, resulting in increased transparency across their real estate assets; the company also streamlines the endless paperwork and reporting requirements that burden the everyday investor”, he assured.
Heath Silverman, CEO and co-founder of Stessa, noted that “as real estate investors ourselves, we created Stessa to solve the biggest pain points associated with our own investments – ongoing asset management and portfolio optimization; the JLL Spark acquisition will allow us to scale quickly and broaden our reach.”
Silverman disclosed that Stessa has been in beta for the past year testing its product with a select group of early customers representing nearly half a billion dollars in income properties.
CHUKA UROKO
