JLL Spark, the venture division of professional services and investment management firm JLL, recently announced its acquisition of Stessa, a software as a service (SaaS)–based platform that helps real estate investors track, manage, and communicate the performance of their portfolios.
While streamlined asset-management tools are available to equity investors and other traditional investors, Stessa founders Heath Silverman and Jonah Schwartz say few tools are available to real estate investors. Their new platform meets this perceived need by providing property owners real-time views into their holdings, increasing transparency across assets, and streamlining paperwork and reporting requirements.
"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 Silverman, Stessa CEO and co-founder, in a statement. "The JLL Spark acquisition will allow us to scale quickly and broaden our reach."
Stessa, which is “assets” spelled backward, marks JLL Spark's first acquisition. The venture arm is structured to operate independently of JLL but with access to the parent firm's resources and expertise. JLL Spark co-CEOs Yishai Lerner and Mihir Shah came to their roles with successful backgrounds building and investing in tech companies, according to JLL.
