Venture Capital News: Hightower Scores $13M in Series B
2015-05-19
NEW YORK, NY, Hightower, a leasing management platform for the commercial real estate industry, today announced it has raised $13 million in Series B funding.
RRE Ventures led the funding round with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Thrive Capital, and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
This series brings Hightower's total venture backing to $22 million, making it one of the most well-funded startups in the commercial real estate tech industry backed by several of the largest investors in the world. RRE Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Thrive Capital are all return funders who have continued supporting the company by doubling down on their initial investment after seeing customers' success using the platform.
'Hightower's tremendous growth is directly linked to the success customers are seeing on our platform. Our philosophy is to partner with our customers to provide them with an end-to-end solution that produces results,' said Brandon Weber, co-founder and CEO of Hightower. 'The commercial real estate industry has been thirsting for modernization, with archaic spreadsheets and other inefficiencies bogging down the business for too long. Over the past year, Hightower has helped commercial real estate professionals increase visibility, be more productive, and reach more tenants, creating demonstrable value in their leasing operations.'
Founded in 2013, Hightower provides web-based software that helps commercial brokers and owners more effectively manage their end-to-end leasing process - reaching prospects, converting prospects to tenants, and managing overall portfolio performance - by bringing today's disparate data and activities onto a single platform that is intuitive, collaborative and accessible from any device.
'Commercial real estate as an industry needs an end-to-end technology platform as it continues transitioning to a data-centric model, and Hightower is responsible for building this initial foundation. We doubled down on our Hightower investment because we saw firsthand the value their initial customers were seeing by using the platform,' said Steve Schlafman, principal at RRE Ventures. 'I believe Hightower has positioned itself as the leader in commercial real estate tech and our continued investment in their platform is indicative of that.'
Since launching last year, Hightower has seen 20 percent month-over-month growth and added thousands of new buildings to the platform, including some of the most iconic commercial real estate properties in the country. With this additional funding, Hightower plans to invest in scaling its team, accelerating its product development and establishing its international footprint. The next few months will also bring exciting updates and industry-first features to the Hightower platform.
'Commercial real estate contributed $500 billion to the GDP last year. Through a collaborative mobile workflow solution, Hightower makes brokers and landlords more efficient,' said Ethan Kurzweil, Bessemer Venture Partners. 'The growth we've seen in Hightower to date and the rave reviews they receive from customers make us confident that our continued investment is money well spent. We expect big things from Hightower.'
About Hightower
Founded in July 2013, Hightower is a web-based leasing management platform that helps commercial real estate brokers and owners more effectively manage their end-to-end leasing process. By bringing today's disparate data and activities onto a single platform that is intuitive, collaborative and accessible from any device, Hightower allows brokers and owners to reach prospects, convert prospects to tenants and manage overall portfolio performance. Hightower is the brainchild of technologist turned commercial real estate exec Brandon Weber, who founded the company with Niall Smart and Donald DeSantis. Since launching, Hightower has added thousands of new buildings to the platform, including some of the most iconic commercial real estate properties in the country. Investors comprise some of the most prominent names in commercial real estate, entrepreneurship and venture capital, including RRE Ventures, Thrive Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, David Tisch (Boxgroup) and Aaron Levie (Box.com).
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