Fundrise, known for its real estate investment platform, recently launched an Innovation Fund aimed at opening up venture tech opportunities to everyday investors. Aligning with its real estate roots, the fund made two strategic proptech investments: Jetty and Inspectify.
In September, the Innovation Fund contributed $2 million to Jetty, a rental real estate financial services platform. The funding, which also included Citi Impact Fund, will help Jetty’s growth as it modernizes services for property managers and renters.
This follows a $4 million July investment leading Inspectify’s latest round. The proptech company develops property inspection software, standardizing and streamlining processes for investors, managers, and lenders.
As CEO Ben Miller explains, the investments build on Fundrise’s expertise. “We’re a fintech company, so we have something about finance, and we know something about technology,” he told the “Onward” podcast. “The type of technologies we’re interested in, we actually use.”
While weighted toward AI and data infrastructure, the fund’s first proptech moves tap into an expanding sector. With an estimated 9% annual growth, proptech could reach $86.5 billion in the next decade.
Jetty appeals by integrating rental financial services on a single platform. Fundrise’s letter to investors highlights Jetty’s potential to eliminate unnecessary fees and hassles around security deposits and rent payment.
Meanwhile, Inspectify modernizes manual inspection workflows with data-driven software. Fundrise has already run nearly 5,000 inspections through Inspectify’s platform. As the investment letter states, “We believe Inspectify has built the future of physical property diligence.”
With its background as a real estate fintech, Fundrise seems poised for more strategic proptech investments. Jetty and Inspectify may just be the start.
