Commercial real estate developer RXR Realty is launching a $50 million real estate tech fund, according to a Bloomberg report.
The firm, which acts as a leading real estate brokerage in the tristate area, manages both commercial and residential properties but mostly focuses on major office and event buildings such as 75 Rockefeller Plaza in New York.
RXR Realty’s fund, which the firm launched in a bid to raise $50 million to finance up-and-coming tech startups and bring more technology features to the properties they manage, is slated to be ready by the end of 2018. Investors who participate will also be able to put in as much as $100 million in extra capital outside the fund.
“We’ve seen how technology has become more and more ubiquitous in our business and want both the opportunity to invest and to be at the forefront of leveraging these technologies that can help us run our business more effectively,” CEO Scott Rechler told Bloomberg, which first reported the story.
RXR Realty’s fund follows a larger trend of real estate companies rushing to invest in new technology startups to stay competitive. In the past month alone, JLL Spark (a branch of Jones Lang LaSalle) launched a $100 million real estate tech fund while venture capital firm Fifth Wall Ventures raised $60 million to finance new technology startups.