Dive Brief:
- JLL has agreed to acquire Raise Commercial Real Estate to enhance its existing leasing technology and platform capabilities, the company announced Tuesday.
- The acquisition will give JLL and its clients access to Raise’s cloud-based application and leasing lifecycle management technology, including transaction and lease management and workplace and portfolio analytics, according to a news release. Raise co-founder and CEO Justin Bedecarre will lead Raise’s integration into JLL’s U.S. leasing business as head of Americas Leasing Innovation and report to Andy Poppink, CEO of Markets Advisory at JLL.
- “Raise strengthens JLL's platform with market-leading technology, seasoned brokers, and elite engineers to build innovative products for the full leasing lifecycle. This acquisition advances our services, offering a best-in-class experience to our clients," said John Gates, CEO of Americas Markets at JLL.
Dive Insight:
JLL’s move to strengthen its leasing management capabilities comes as building owners, operators and investors and operators expect brighter days ahead in the commercial real estate sector. Sixty-eight percent of respondents to a Deloitte survey expect conditions to improve in 2025 across areas such as cost of capital, capital availability, property prices, transaction activity, leasing activity, rental growth and vacancies.
Additionally, 81% identified data and technology as the area they are most likely to focus their spending on in the coming year, per the survey of 880 global chief executives and direct reports at major real estate owner and investor organizations.
Founded in San Francisco in 2016, Raise was the first brokerage to create a digital real estate platform, per the release. JLL says the acquisition will help it to leverage valuable insights from the commercial real estate industry and deliver data-driven solutions for its clients. In addition to its transaction and lease management capabilities, Raise provides workplace analytics and occupancy trend data through its platform.
In November 2023, Raise launched a tool that integrates human resource information systems and badge data to facilitate optimal real estate portfolio decision-making by providing workplace metrics on space usage, cost and performance.
“By integrating Raise with our global and local market expertise, we will offer an integrated platform solution to our clients so they can make informed decisions with confidence and ease,” Poppink said in a statement.
In a LinkedIn post Tuesday, Bedecarre said the deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.
“Raise’s mission has always been to help companies find, build, and manage workplaces they love and to make an industry we love into an industry we are proud of,” Bedecarre said in the post. “By joining forces with JLL, we have the opportunity to fulfill that mission at the biggest scale...on the biggest stage.”
JLL said it plans to integrate Raise’s team and technology into its business and will update the market on future plans following the deal’s close. Raise has approximately 80 employees, which are all being offered a role at JLL, according to a JLL spokesperson.
JLL declined to disclose financial details related to the transaction at this time.
