Adam Demuyakor

Adam Demuyakor’s ethos is investing in early-stage companies actually focused on solving the big issues in commercial real estate, rather than start-ups just chasing fads.

“I think there’s a lot of companies out there that are, more or less, teams and solutions that are looking for problems, but not actually solving key problems. So, when things get tough, they find that the product-market fit is not really there, and so that impacts their revenue and business model,” said Demuyakor, founder of Los Angeles-based Wilshire Lane Capital. “Whereas most of our companies are out there solving real problems, and the demand is really there. … I think that that’s where you have opportunities to have big returns.” 

Indeed, a number of Wilshire’s ventures have seen explosions in value lately, such as AI-driven rent payment and credit-building platform Piñata, which Demuyakor said has more than quadrupled its revenue in the past year. Yet, Wilshire also intentionally searches for technology solutions focused on streamlining operations and cutting costs for real estate firms, Demuyakor said, because those firms rely on those systems even (or especially) during market downturns.

A recent example is Colleen AI, which uses generative AI to automate payment collections for multifamily owners and operators. Just one year after Wilshire led a $3.5 million seed funding round for the Daytona Beach, Fla., startup, it was acquired by property management system Entrata for an undisclosed sum. Wilshire, naturally, became a shareholder of Entrata as part of the deal. 

“Proptech is truly at its best when you have innovative technology solutions that are actually making things better, actually improving the operations for what has historically been an industry that’s been a laggard when it comes to tech and innovation, ” Demuyakor said. “If you’re truly making things better, then product-market fit is there, the sale cycle is there, the industry will start to buy in, your revenues will start to grow, and the flywheels start to kick in.”