On Tuesday morning, JLL Spark announced its acquisition of Stessa, a software-as-a-service-based real estate technology platform.
This is the first strategic acquisition by JLL Spark since Jones Lang LaSalle created the company in 2017. Its mission, according to the company, is to transform the real estate industry through technology-based innovation.
JLL has structured JLL Spark, which is led by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Mihir Shah and Yishai Lerner, to operate independently and without the typical constraints of most corporate “innovation” or venture arms, giving it “the nimbleness and speed of a startup backed by JLL’s expertise and resources,” the company said in a press release.
Who is Stessa? According to the company, the platform allows investors in income properties to easily and cost-effectively track, manage and communicate the performance of their portfolios.
Stessa, which is “assets” spelled backwards, was built by real estate investors for real estate investors, the company explained. The company claims it makes real estate asset management as simple as traditional investment categories like equities.
“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. “We chose Stessa as our first acquisition because its innovative product fills a gap in the market for small-to-medium investors.”
Stessa’s platform provides property owners with real-time views into their holdings, providing transparency across real estate assets. The company said it also streamlines paperwork and reporting requirements that burden the average, everyday investor.
“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,” said Heath Silverman, CEO and co-founder of Stessa. “The JLL Spark acquisition will allow us to scale quickly and broaden our reach.”
