Cadre, a startup which just raised $18.3 million from Thrive Capital and General Catalyst, is looking to use its fresh war chest to modernize the software used in the commercial real estate industry.
Ryan Williams, a Goldman Sachs and Blackstone alum, says that after working in real estate private equity, he was shocked that billions of dollars of capital was being managed in mere Excel files.
“The real estate industry is one of those last frontiers where the way people conduct business today is how they’ve been doing it for decades — especially on the capital raising side,” Williams said. “A lot still happens offline. People connect offline. Investors and operators connect via phone calls and e-mail.”
While he’s not talking specifically about what the product looks like, he said, “at a high level, it’s a technology-driven framework for investing in real estate. It’s a newly enhanced way to connect institutional capital with real estate opportunities.”
Williams co-founders also include Thrive’s Joshua Kushner and his brother Jared Kushner, a prominent real estate developer who owns several properties across New Jersey and Manhattan. Other angels include Michael Fascitelli, Jon Winkelried and Andrew Farkas. SL Green, the largest commercial property owner in New York City, invested in the round too.
The 10-person startup has hired “best in class, front-end technology” talent like Andrew Borovsky, a former director of product at Square. They’ve also picked up finance talent from the institutional side with alums from private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
The company has secured a $250 million backstop from “a large family office.” (No, it’s not Kushner Properties.) And they’ve also already brought 50 family offices and endowments onto the platform.
