Israeli commercial real estate startup that automates the insurance compliance process for tenants and property managers Jones raised a $12.5m Series A funding round.
The round was led by JLL Spark, a division of the US commercial real estate services firm JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle), Khosla Ventures, and was also joined by several other participants including Camber Creek, Rudin Management, DivcoWest and Sage Realty.
This new investment brings Jones’ total raised to $20m.
Founded in 2017, Jones aims to simplify risk and compliance for commercial property managers by leveraging AI technology. Its software platform functions as an easy-to-use tool to reduce time spent and errors made on processing vendor approvals. The technology could reduce the 12-day lead time for an approval to 2.5 days with higher accuracy.
Through the Jones service, commercial real estate property managers, developers, and real estate owners can be connected with vendors and tenants who have already been pre-approved and are compliant with insurance requirements. Additionally, the PropTech startup lets customers collect, audit, and manage insurance certificates to ensure all policies are current and compliant.
Commenting on the funding, Jones CEO Omri Stern said, “For too long, the commercial real estate industry has been held back by a burdensome compliance process that’s more focused on who can’t come into buildings than on how to get work done. We’re excited to use this investment to accelerate our mission to make it easier to get work done while ensuring best-in-class compliance.”
Jones will use the funding to support its clients, including some of the largest real estate firms in the US such as Lincoln Property Company, Prologis, DivcoWest, Rudin Management, Sage Realty, and JLL.
It aims to capitalise on the growing sector. The global commercial real estate industry in 2020 was valued at $32.6tn compared to $30.3tn in 2019. Furthermore, in the US, the commercial real estate market was reportedly valued at $16 trillion in 2018.
JLL Technologies co-CEO Yishai Lerner said that Jones’ efforts towards “automating the insurance compliance process end-to-end, building a system of record that improves liability management and creating a never-before-seen marketplace for trusted vendors” demonstrate “innovation in the PropTech industry that turns problems on their head — creating solutions while also creating new opportunities.”
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