Investment is one of the largest in the commercial real estate financing space
Lev, an online commercial real estate lending platform, has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Greenspring, with participation from First American Financial.
The company said that the funding – one of the largest to-date in the CRE financing space – will be mainly used to expand Lev’s services and teams in New York City, Miami, and Los Angeles. Since its launch in 2019, Lev has closed about $100 million of loans and expects to exceed $1 billion in originations in 2021.
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“CRE is a massive space, with an addressable market of more than $40 billion for CRE financing alone, yet the industry has been entrenched in an outdated workflow, slow to take advantage of technology to help put their customers first,” said Yaakov Zar, founder and CEO of Lev. “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. 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.”
Existing investors, including NFX, Canaan Partners, JLL Spark, Animo Ventures and Ludlow Ventures, also participated in the funding round.
“We strongly believe that Lev is paving the way for the future of the industry by providing technology that not only makes transactions more efficient but ensures that their customers get the best financing, with the best experience,” said Hunter Somerville, general partner at Greenspring Associates. “And Lev is doing all this while working with some of the largest, most established organizations in the industry. Their willingness and tenacity to truly make this industry better is a vision we not only believe will come to fruition, but one that will set the standard for CRE moving forward, and we’re excited to be a part of it.”
