Marcus & Millichap Invests In, Partners With Crowdfunding Platform
Brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap is putting capital in a crowdfunding platform, its second proptech investment in less than a month.
The Calabasas, California-based brokerage made an equity investment in EquityMultiple as part of a strategic partnership, it announced Wednesday. It didn't disclose the size of the investment.
The New York-based real estate financing platform allows accredited investors to invest and companies to raise private equity and credit through crowdfunding. Since its founding in 2015, 50,000 investors have participated in over $5B in commercial real estate transactions, according to the company.
“With this partnership, we continue our longstanding tradition of providing the commercial real estate industry with advantages that groundbreaking technologies have to offer,” Marcus & Millichap Eastern Division Chief Operating Officer J.D. Parker said in a release.
“EquityMultiple’s diverse array of real estate investment products expand a service line and broadens our spectrum of debt and equity sources,” he added.
Last month, Marcus & Millichap announced it put an equity investment behind another proptech firm, AI-powered real estate platform Archer, whose tools include one to accelerate the underwriting process.
Marcus & Millichap reported a net loss of $9.2M during the third quarter, down from a net gain of $21M during the same period last year, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The brokerage lost $24M through the first nine months of this year.
In the SEC filing, Marcus & Millichap President and CEO Hessam Nadji attributed the losses to wide bid-ask spreads and uncertain capital markets slowing transactions. He also alluded to the company's strategy of using the market slump to look at how it can enhance its business through acquisitions and technology.
“Powered by our strong balance sheet and leading brand, we are leveraging the current period to attract leading professionals, pursue strategic investments and acquisitions and enhance our technology and brokerage tools,” he said.
Crowdfunding in the real estate sector has come under scrutiny this year after a high-profile scandal involving online platform CrowdStreet.
Nightingale Properties, which raised money on the platform to purchase an office tower in Atlanta and renovate one in Miami, misappropriated investors’ funds, an independent fiduciary revealed in July. In October, the company reached a tentative settlement agreement to pay back investors over the next three years.
The scandal prompted some crowdfunding companies to reassure investors about the safety of investing via their platforms, including EquityMultiple, which issued a letter highlighting the differences between its policies and CrowdStreet's. But EquityMultiple CEO Charles Clinton also told Bisnow in August he thinks the scandal could negatively impact the sector.
“Financial services and fraud are unfortunately a natural pairing, and given that our industry is still newer and on a growth curve, anything that could hurt the reputation could hurt its growth,” Clinton said.
