Investing in real estate is considered to be one of the best ways to diversify investment portfolios and often results in large gains. Besides purchasing real estate investment trusts (REIT), investing in commercial real estate is not as simple as trading stock options on brokerages. To get more people into the market, Austin-based CrowdStreet is making it easier for mid-level investors to invest in commercial real estate.
Earlier this week, CrowdStreet secured $43 million in equity and debt capital to grow its platform and make online, commercial real estate investing more prevalent. The equity portion of this round comes from TIAA, Cypress Equity Investments, The Dinerstein Companies and others. Previously, the fintech company had raised $24.9 million across several rounds, according to Crunchbase.
“We are pleased to count so many of these leaders from across the industry as customers, partners and now, with their participation in this fundraising round, strategic investors. They know us better than anyone and share our vision for the future of commercial real estate investing,” Tore Steen, CEO of CrowdStreet, said in a statement. “With their support, we can accelerate our efforts to provide even more investing products, helping investors build their financial freedom through direct real estate investing.”
CrowdStreet’s platform allows investors to view investment properties along with their financial documents and learn the ins and outs of a project before committing capital. Through the platform, investors can also attend webinars with developers to learn more about a specific project.
Since launching, the CrowdStreet platform has grown to manage over $400 million in client assets. With the new capital, it wants to help its customers further manage assets and develop more products that provide wealth management services.
“With the new capital, we’re going to create some new ways for individual investors and financial advisors to learn about, understand and access private commercial real estate investments. The initial push will be around engagement to educate and inform more investors and advisors. Longer term, you’re likely to see some new ways on the website for investors and their advisors to view, vet and manage their real estate investments as part of their overall portfolios,” Cary Brazeman, a spokesperson for CrowdStreet, told Built In via email.
CrowdStreet, which relocated its headquarters from Oregon to Austin last year, is currently hiring across various departments.
