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According to a new report published by commercial real estate giant JLL, VCs invested $1.05 billion in global construction technology startups in the first half of 2018, a record high. 2018’s investment volume is already up nearly 30 percent over the 2017 total. These startups are helping to deliver projects more quickly, to reduce the amount of resources being consumed, to make worksites safer, to increase coordination among stakeholders in the projects, and to provide new data sources for project leaders. 

Residential real estate has proven to be a strong driver of economic growth and individual wealth, representing more than 15% of our nation’s GDP. The combined value of housing in the United States reached a record-high $31.8 trillion in 2017, according to Zillow.

Dreamit UrbanTech alum Traxyl is raising $3 million in seed financing with a mission to make optical fiber-quality data connectivity accessible and affordable to everyone. The team will use the funding to develop its machines that build optical fiber networks, to hire employees and find a new warehouse space. The company previously received a Small Business Innovation Research grant totaling nearly $225,000, for third-party lab testing.

Commercial real estate firms are investing heavily in technology startups and established companies that help manage data. The acquisition of FacilitySource comes after the company established itself as the go-to data solution for the facilities management industry and built advanced analytics capabilities that tap into performance data gathered since its founding in 2005. 

There is relatively little opportunity for a moat around scooter businesses apart from being the first to market in any geographic area. This explains why Sequoia pumped $150M into Bird for rapid expansion, and why GV invested $250M into Lime. When companies are built and deployed at scale, users are more likely to choose the product with wider availability. This is what gave Uber a massive advantage in the ride-hailing market, which has many similarities to the mobility market occupied by electric scooter companies. 

JLL is one of the largest players in real estate, with over $7B in revenue and over 77K employees around the world.  Now, the real estate developer and property manager is getting into the property tech investment game with the launch of a new $100 million fund run by corporate subsidiary JLL Spark.