附近上门

Real estate securities marketplace has raised $6 million in additional seed funding, the company announced Wednesday.

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The LEX marketplace lets both accredited and unaccredited investors obtain minority positions in commercial real estate properties through single-asset IPOs, according to the company. Investors can buy and sell shares of commercial real estate assets without lockups through LEX鈥檚 platform, which is powered by Nasdaq.

While its focus right now is commercial real estate, the company is building the platform to bring liquidity to other asset classes, according to CEO

鈥淲e really are an infrastructure platform,鈥� Sterrett said in an interview with 附近上门 News. 鈥淎n infrastructure and technology platform.鈥�

LEX began with commercial real estate because that鈥檚 Sterrett鈥檚 background, he said. The CEO was working at a private equity firm and structuring commercial real estate deals, but didn鈥檛 have the ability to go into a PE deal and invest in real estate. Sterrett came to the realization that commercial real estate was one of the oldest asset classes, but extremely illiquid.聽

鈥淲e had artificial intelligence funds before we had real estate and commercial real estate funds,鈥� Sterrett said.

The company is hoping to one day move past commercial real estate to other asset classes including income share agreements, farmland and private equity. LEX plans on using the new funding to invest in the company鈥檚 technology and grow the team, which currently has about 25 employees and may grow past 50 employees in the next year, Sterrett said.

Venture-backed commercial real estate startups raised nearly $379 million in funding in 2020, according to preliminary 附近上门 data, while VC-backed startups in the real estate investment space raised more than $333 million.聽 Fintech, on the other hand, raised more than $26 billion.聽

Investors in the round include WatermanClark managing partner , Tim Callahan, partner Marty Edelman, Kawawa Capital, Inertia Ventures, Modern Venture Partners, , , , RAJ Capital and player DeAndre Hopkins.

鈥淭he LEX platform provides a creative solution to some of the industry鈥檚 long-standing pain points and empowers institutional and retail investors with new tools to diversify their portfolios while providing property owners with a unique model of accessing liquidity,鈥� former veteran Clark of WatermanClark said in a statement.聽

LEX last raised $4 million in seed funding from and in October 2019. The new round brings the company鈥檚 total funding to more than $10 million.

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