CBRE Leads $125M Funding Round For VTS Office-Usage Tech
Proptech firm VTS raised $125M in a new funding round led by real estate services giant CBRE, which contributed $100M to the round.
With this funding round, VTS' valuation increased to $1.7B.
The move comes at a time when overall investment in tech firms and other startups is down. CBRE is nevertheless betting on VTS, which allows landlords and tenants to gauge office occupancy trends, a critical task at a time when employers are trying to attract — or mandate — workers back to the office.
In addition to making a capital investment, CBRE will partner with VTS to roll out the CBRE's agency leasing and property management teams, starting in the U.S.
Also, CBRE's existing office app, Host, will begin running on VTS’ office app, called Rise.
In 2021, the VTS platform executed over $31B of leases, with over 2B SF of assets added that year. Currently, over 300,000 tenant companies are managed throughout the platform, according to VTS.
“From our perspective, these uncertain, almost a little scary times are the best times to deploy new technology,” VTS co-founder Ryan Masiello told The Wall Street Journal. “People will listen. They’re open to deploying new things.”
CBRE first invested in VTS in 2016, with the most recent investment its largest by far. Other investors in the current round include BentallGreenOak, AmTrust, Brookfield Ventures and Insight Venture Partners.
