JLL Tech Ventures’ 3rd investment zeroes in on residential property and asset management
Mumbai, 22 May 2017: Leading international property consultancy JLL India today announced an investment into Zipgrid, India’s fastest-growing technology and knowledge services provider in the community management space. This marks the closure of Zipgrid’s pre Series-A round of US$ 500K. It is also JLL’s third investment by its JLL Technology Ventures platform, a dedicated vertical for making investments into real estate technology firms. The round saw active participation from Zipgrid’s current investors represented by the 1Crowd platform.
“The asset management space is transitioning into a managed services model where technology is starting to play a major role,” says Anuj Nangpal, Head – JLL Technology Ventures. “We aim to partner with technology platforms with flexible architectures that can integrate with best-in-class technology tools. Zipgrid’s tech-enabled property and asset management platform offers a seamless experience for residents, society managements and the property managers. This platform is significantly more matured than any similar options on the market, and we are keen to implement this solution in residential and commercial complexes across the APAC region.”
Over 35 million households reside in organized communities in the top 50 city clusters in India. This platform represents a market opportunity of over US$ 2 bn and is slated to grow aggressively as such households increase to over 100 mn by 2025. Zipgrid’s service model dovetails very favourably with the strict norms enforced by RERA and also addresses a market opportunity that will transcend beyond India into Asia Pacific with the support of the global JLL platform.
The investment will be used to fund upgrading and upscaling of existing technology and operations, and to deploy a range of collective commerce solutions for individual residents as well as residential communities. Zipgrid had earlier raised US$ 250K from 1Crowd that counts a number of C-level professionals as active members on its platform.
Zipgrid, founded in August 2013 by Kunal Gupta and Jaydip Popat, provides tech-driven services to hundreds of housing and commercial communities. Its platform comprises of a full suite of integrated tools and applications that promote:
- Highly efficient property management
- Community engagement
- Financial as well as legal compliance
- Accounting management
- Compliance management
- Builder-to-society transition services
- Vendor management
- Billing and payment solutions, and
- Records digitization.
Jaydip Popat, Co-founder – Zipgrid says, “We are delighted to partner JLL, a global real estate leader in Property and Asset management services. We intend to combine our technology and management solutions with JLL’s network and understanding of this space to improve living experiences in communities while bringing significant economic benefits to residents. We are also thankful to 1Crowd for their continued support and participation in this round. It is a significant vote of confidence for us.”
Natasha Kothari, Co-founder – 1Crowd says, “1Crowd’s start-up ecosystem supports companies like Zipgrid that are using technology and knowledge to bring efficiency and convenience to all. Zipgrid is on a very strong growth trajectory and has made significant progress since the time we made our investment last year. In this heavily fragmented market, Zipgrid has managed to provide systemic efficiency to the housing and commercial communities.”
About JLL
JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. A Fortune 500 company, JLL helps real estate owners, occupiers and investors achieve their business ambitions. In 2016, JLL had revenue of $6.8 billion and fee revenue of $5.8 billion and, on behalf of clients, managed 4.4 billion square feet, or 409 million square meters, and completed sales acquisitions and finance transactions of approximately $136 billion. At the end of the first quarter of 2017, JLL had nearly 300 corporate offices, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of more than 78,000. As of March 31, 2017, LaSalle Investment Management had $58.0 billion of real estate under asset management.
JLL has over 50 years of experience in Asia Pacific, with 36,800 employees operating in 95 offices in 16 countries across the region. The firm won the ‘World’s Best’ and ‘Best in Asia Pacific’ International Property Consultancy at the International Property Awards in 2016 and was named number one real estate investment advisory firm in Asia Pacific for the sixth consecutive year by Real Capital Analytics and ranked among Fortune Magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies list third year in a row. www.ap.jll.com
For further information, visit www.jll.com
About JLL India
JLL is India’s premier and largest professional services firm specializing in real estate. With an extensive geographic footprint across 11 cities (Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Chandigarh and Coimbatore) and a staff strength of over 9,300 – the firm provides investors, developers, local corporates and multinational companies with a comprehensive range of services including research, analytics, consultancy, transactions, project and development services, integrated facility management, property and asset management, sustainability, industrial, capital markets, residential, hotels, health care, senior living, education and retail advisory. The firm was awarded the Property Consultant of the Decade at the 10th CNBC-Awaaz Real Estate Awards 2015 and the Best Property Consultancy in India at the International Property Awards Asia Pacific 2016-17.
For further information, please visit www.jll.co.in