Juniper Square announces $75m Series C to modernize the CRE industry
Juniper Square has announced $75 million in Series C funding, led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from Ribbit Capital, Felicis Ventures, and Zigg Capital. Juniper Square’s mission is to bring more transparency and less friction to the $16 trillion commercial real estate market via software.
Customers manage the ownership of nearly $800 billion of real estate through Juniper Square’s software, representing nearly 5 percent of the total market capitalization of this massive asset class. By automating investment workflows and centralizing vital transaction, investment and investor information, Juniper Square enables transparency where blind trust used to suffice, and migrates time spent by partners from managing data to using that data to grow and optimize return on investments.
“In an ideal world, commercial real estate could be traded with the information, trust, and ease available in public equity markets. The world’s second biggest asset class deserves world-class technology for managing ownership, yet none exists,” said Alex Robinson, co-founder and CEO of Juniper Square. “With this latest round, Juniper Square is better able to seize the opportunity to change the status quo in a way that benefits both GPs and LPs in the commercial real estate ecosystem. Our vision is that one day, an institution or individual could invest in a share of a commercial building just like they would in a share of stock on the NYSE.”
With a new influx of investment, adding to a $25 million Series B round raised less than a year ago in 2018, Juniper Square is poised to continue its growth while also transforming the nature of the commercial real estate industry, addressing pain points faced by both GPs and LPs. The implications of one centralized industry system of record with data to enhance a wide range of functions, including operations, accounting and investments will transform the way the industry operates.
“At Redpoint, we look for visionary founders who can create new markets or redefine existing ones — and that’s Alex and Juniper Square,” said Elliot Geidt, Redpoint partner. “To succeed in commercial real estate, you need the trust of key players, and to win that trust, you need industry context, which Alex and his team have in droves to complement their software expertise.”
Juniper Square, founded in 2014, developed its software as a private beta for two years in partnership with 12 “founding customers” in the commercial real estate industry. Those initial two years of product development resulted in software that integrates elements of the commercial real estate transaction and management workflow currently not managed by a single software tool, from accounting and payments, to collecting and managing capital and reporting on performance.
That period also set the company up for success at launch, with customers and revenue from day one, and 94 percent of its customers performing some critical business function in Juniper Square, such as calculating returns or issuing payments, every week. Since launch, the company has seen 98 percent lifetime customer retention.
