OpenView Leads $21 M Series B Investment in CRE Tech Company VTS
July 15, 2015
Commercial real estate is a $12 trillion industry that for decades has been largely overlooked by the tech community, leaving brokers and owners to rely on little more than Excel to manage complex, sprawling portfolios. Now, thanks to New York City-based VTS, a mobile-first commercial real estate asset management and leasing platform, the status quo in commercial real estate is changing.
Today, I am pleased to welcome VTS to the OpenView family. By providing real estate brokers and landlords with a consolidated view through which they can manage deal activity, identify trends and quantify portfolio performance all in real-time, VTS has single-handedly become the defacto ecosystem for the CRE tech community.
Redefining the Status Quo in Commercial Real Estate
With real-time, mobile-first capabilities, VTS eliminates the need for real estate professionals to comb through dense Excel files and participate in drawn-out back and forth email exchanges. Instead, the platform delivers interactive stacking plans, integrates seamlessly with existing accounting systems, enables users to track tenants and provides in-depth analytics every step of the way.
The product redefines the leasing process, giving owners and brokers insight into their entire portfolios from the palm of their hand all in real-time.
VTS’ approach has already been widely adopted by some of the industry’s largest institutional landlords and brokerage firms including Blackstone, Boston Properties, JPMorgan, TIAA-CREF and Jones Lang LaSalle. Validation from these market leaders has created tremendous virality around the product, with the VTS platform now managing more than 1.5 billion square feet of commercial real estate in major US and international markets.
Partnering with a Top Notch Team
OpenView has long history of backing vertical SaaS category-leaders, but leading companies aren’t created without great teams. In VTS’ case, we’ve found a great team coupled with deep domain expertise. VTS’ co-founders, Nick Romito and Ryan Masiello, are uniquely aware of the pain points faced by brokers and landlords because they themselves come from the world of commercial real estate. Combining Nick and Ryan’s domain expertise with the technical acumen of co-founder and CTO, Karl Baum, makes for a leadership team that is set to flip the commercial real estate industry on its head.
Our investment in VTS further solidifies their market-leading position in the CRE tech space. In fact, it marks the single largest investment ever made in a CRE tech company. We’re impressed with what the VTS team has accomplished to date and are excited to be a part of their mission to empower brokers and owners going forward.