Financial Titans Invest $43 Million in CrowdStreet to Fund Growth and Accelerate Demand for Online Real Estate Investing

Equity capital came from a prominent group of strategic investors including Fortune 100 financial services company TIAA, which is making an investment through its newly launched TIAA Ventures program that seeks investments in promising fintech companies, as well as commercial real estate industry heavyweights such as Cypress Equity Investments, The Dinerstein Companies, and Foulger-Pratt. Existing venture capital partners Grotech Ventures, Rally Ventures, Seven Peaks Ventures, and Green Visor Capital also participated in the funding.

“We are pleased to count so many of these leaders from across the industry as customers, partners, and now, with their participation in this fundraising round, strategic investors. They know us better than anyone and share our vision for the future of commercial real estate investing,” said Tore Steen, Chief Executive Officer of CrowdStreet, Inc. “With their support, we can accelerate our efforts to provide even more investing products, helping investors build their financial freedom through direct real estate investing.”

CrowdStreet will use the influx of new capital to improve the technology that powers its platform, and evolve the investing experience and investment management tools used by investors every day. “We’ve watched for several years as CrowdStreet has evolved its fintech platform to better serve real estate project sponsors and its community of investors,” said Shawn Lese, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Real Estate Funds Management, Americas, at Nuveen, an investment affiliate of TIAA. “CrowdStreet’s innovation is modernizing, demystifying, and streamlining access to commercial real estate so that more investors have the potential to reap the benefits of investment in the asset class.”

This $43 million investment will also help CrowdStreet expand into the wealth management channel, allowing financial advisors to help their clients easily add commercial real estate, a valuable alternative asset, to their portfolios.

CrowdStreet is looking to expand its product and service offerings, giving even more individual investors and financial advisors new ways to access private commercial real estate. This will accelerate the efforts already undertaken by CrowdStreet Advisors, which currently manages over $400 million in client assets across private real estate funds and separately managed accounts. In 2022, CrowdStreet Advisors launched its flagship fund, CrowdStreet REIT I, Inc. (C-REIT), which combines the best of private real estate funds and public REITs, providing investors with a simple way to invest in more than 20 projects across the nation. These real estate funds give investors priority access to some of the most sought-after individual deals on the CrowdStreet Marketplace, as well as an opportunity to invest in projects not made available to the broader investor community.

Since its inception, CrowdStreet has raised over $3.6 billion for 670+ commercial real estate projects across the U.S. In 2021, the company achieved its first billion-dollar year, when its investor community funded $1.2 billion across single-property deals, professionally-managed funds, and separately managed accounts. As of August 2022, 138 investments on the platform have been fully realized, generating an average 17.5% IRR and an average equity multiple of 1.50x.

About CrowdStreet

CrowdStreet, the nation’s largest online private equity real estate investing platform*, provides investors direct access to a diverse range of investment opportunities, offering the ability to invest with ease and convenience. Real estate firms benefit from a highly efficient way to connect with investors to raise capital and manage investor relations. CrowdStreet is creating a community where investors and experienced real estate firms can work together to expand participation in the commercial real estate market to build and preserve wealth. Learn more at https://www.crowdstreet.com/.

1 CrowdStreet was named Best Overall Real Estate Crowdfunding Site by Investopedia for 2021 and 2022. Investopedia chose the Best Real Estate Crowdfunding Sites by conducting an independent review process based on a variety of factors including: investment minimums, platform fees, total  number of investors, total investor dividends, historical annual returns, reinvestment opportunities, website transparency (how easy it is to find platform fees, minimums, and redemption options), Better Business Bureau ratings, and educational offerings. They also investigate each company’s online reputation-including average monthly search volume, recent news, customer reviews, and complaints-to ensure the platform is well respected and legitimate. https://www.investopedia.com/review-process-4802351

We calculate IRR, or Internal Rate of Return, for individual realized deals based on the aggregate investor cash flows, utilizing the XIRR function in Microsoft Excel and with reference to the effective capital contribution dates of each individual investor and the distribution dates by the issuer. The aggregate IRR of all realized deals is based on aggregated cash flows of individual realized deals, as described above, and similarly calculated utilizing the XIRR function. IRR figures listed on this page are net of the most onerous fees charged to clients of CrowdStreet Advisors, LLC, our registered investment advisor subsidiary; an investor’s actual IRR on a realized investment may differ. We utilize a consistent methodology for calculating returns. However, in most cases, the applicable issuing entity provides the distribution information used for our IRR calculations. While we take reasonable steps to verify this information, we cannot guarantee its accuracy.