Lev Expands Offerings With New AppFolio Partnership
By Andrew Coen January 5, 2022 11:00 am
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Lev’s continued evolution in the digitization of commercial real estate has taken another big step forward, Commercial Observer has learned. The firm is joining forces with one of the world’s largest cloud-based property management companies to produce real-time commercial real estate financing quotes.
The tech-focused brokerage has formed a partnership with AppFolio Investment Management to offer details on CRE loans and lines of credit to the company’s customers through Lev’s platform. Yaakov Zar, CEO of Lev, said the move is aimed at responding to increased demand from borrowers for a faster, digital experience when it comes to financing needs.
“We are the only digital connection point for financing so I’m excited about the fact that we can give our customers that end-to-end experience all the way from them collecting rent in their property management system in AppFolio to getting quotes directly through our integration,” Zar said. “That is what this integration enables, in that we’re with one of the largest property management software companies in the world to help power its digital quotes and financing.”
Zar said he always had a vision that Lev could bring digital elements to CRE similar to those provided by online payment processing companies like Stripe. He noted that the AppFolio integration will help Lev differentiate itself from the firm’s competition seeing as an increasing number of CRE owners and investors are seeking more digitization of financing quotes rather than traditional manual processes to which they are accustomed.
“Our goal is to help our real estate investment management customers deliver a modern investor experience,” said Nat Kunes, senior vice president of real estate investment management at AppFolio. “This integration will allow AppFolio Investment Management customers to originate financing more quickly and efficiently, in turn allowing them to get better rates and maximize deal performance.”
Manhattan-based Lev was founded in 2019 with the goal of aiding lenders and investors to close deals with a combination of human CRE expertise and artificial intelligence. The proptech firm facilitated $1 billion worth of deals in 2021, growing its business tenfold from 2020 levels.
The company has raised $45 million of funding since launching, including its securing of $30 million of backing last July, led by investment firm Greenspring Associates.
Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.
