Global real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle announced it launched a new entity dedicated to the development of new real estate tech services and incubating real estate property technology startups. The new service, which is called JLL Spark, will focus on discovering, developing, and implementing smart tech solutions for real estate, with a particular focus on CRE.
JLL Spark will be headed by Mihir Shah and Yishai Lerner, both of whom will serve as co-CEOs and will report directly to JLL’s CEO, Christian Ulbrich. Shah is a successful entrepreneur and seasoned product executive. He was most recently vice president and general manager of mobile at Groupon, where he oversaw substantial and market-leading growth. Lerner is an experienced product-driven technology executive. He was co-founder of several successful start-ups including Mob.ly (acquired by Groupon), Detour and CarrierIQ (acquired by AT&T).
Technology’s impact on the real estate industry has been increasing exponentially according to Shah. “In 2015, $1.9 billion was invested in real estate technology companies around the world, and that number rose 36% in 2016 to $2.6 billion.”