Anant Yardi, Robert Teel and Akshai Rao

Yardi is passing the leadership baton following more than four decades of powering growth in the proptech industry.

The 41-year-old real estate technology company announced in September that Robert Teel will ascend to the CEO position in January, replacing founder Anand Yardi. Teel, who joined the company in 2003, said the consistency under Yardi the man — with the average vice president spending more than 20 years at the firm — should pave the way for a seamless transition. The leadership team also includes Akshai Rao. 

“When you’ve all worked together for the longest time, it just makes any kind of transition like this a lot easier,” Teel said. “We know how to take care of clients and take care of our employees, and we know how to grow.”

Teel will become CEO on the heels of Yardi the company assuming a majority stake in coworking firm WeWork in 2024 as part of its increased emphasis on hybrid working models. Yardi also acquired flexible workspace platforms Deskpass and Hubble in January 2025.

Looking ahead, Teel said an expansion of Yardi’s AI platforms will be a major focus. Yardi launched Voyager 8, an updated version of its property management system that includes AI capabilities, in October. It also rolled out the month before Virtuoso AI Agents as part of its Virtuoso AI platform.

The company also plans to expand its RentCafe and CoWorking Cafe platforms as CRE owners seek the best ways to utilize their spaces in a hybrid work climate, Teel said. 

“The hybrid world that we live in demands flexibility, and they need to be able to go into their primary office or maybe a secondary office, or maybe they’re traveling and they need to pop into an office for the day or a conference room for an hour,” Teel said of office workers. “With the resident journey and the worker journey, we’d like to be the ones that connect the dots between the end user and the owners of the properties for seamless experience.”