Online CRE Financing Platform Raises $30M Series A Round

A proptech startup founded less than two years ago has reached a $130M valuation with its latest funding round. 

Lev, a New York-based online commercial real estate financing transaction platform, announced Tuesday it closed a $30M Series A funding round led by Greenspring. 

The funding round also included investment from First American Title, NFX, Canaan Partners, JLL Spark, ANIMO Ventures and Ludlow Ventures. It plans to use the funding to expand its team in its New York City headquarters, plus its Miami research and development center and its Los Angeles office. 

The platform uses machine learning and other software products, combined with an in-house team of brokers, to help facilitate commercial real estate loan deals. The company said it closed around $100M in loans last year, its first full year in existence after its September 2019 founding, and expects to close over $1B in deals this year. 

The Series A funding round, which Lev said gives it a valuation of more than $130M, comes after the startup closed a $10M seed round in March. Lev founder and CEO Yaakov Zar said in a release that the commercial real estate finance space, a $40B market, has been slow to adopt technology and is "entrenched in an outdated workflow."

“We hope to change that by reimagining the entire experience to provide our customers with the seamless, transparent, fast and fair workflow that they expect and deserve," Zar said. "We recognize that there is a uniquely human factor to every transaction; Lev aims to empower the people behind the transaction and make them smarter and more efficient.”