In this column, Lerer Hippeau’s Naya Frazier dive into technologies and industries that are exciting, going deep into change drivers and stakeholders while exploring investment trends and opportunities through an early-stage lens.
Real Estate
Reopening America with Intelligence in the Built Environment
As America celebrated this week its 245th year of Independence, New York City is beginning to show signs of liberation from the past year of Covid captivity. Even my landmark office skyscraper, The Empire State Building, recently loosened its pandemic mask and social distancing restrictions. Unfortunately, the bustling of Midtown suits is still far from […]
Notarize Raises $35M to Bring Remote Online Notarization to the Masses
The pandemic has shifted our behavior increasingly online and notary service is no different. Transactions need to get done and signatures need to get verified by notaries. The typical notary experience is not so practical while under lockdown but thanks to Notarize, the process can be handled completely online. CEO Pat Kinsel walks us through the explosive growth the company is seeing – especially in the real estate space, the company’s plan in the near-term, and latest round of funding that was led by Camber Creek and Polaris Partners.
The PropTech Report: An Open Frontier For Hardware Entrepreneurs
Two constants have guided my professional life: venture capital and real estate. Every year, I eagerly await to see which portfolio will produce greater returns. Today, in the words of the great (fictional) New Yorker George Louis Costanza, “Worlds are colliding!” Enertiv, a New York Angels investment, keeps growing with an impressive client list of property managers and […]
A 360 Degree View Of Incubating Mechatronics
Recently, private equity giant Blackstone Group announced the acquisition of Colony Capital for $5.9 billion, a deal that encompasses 60 million square feet of warehouse space across 465 facilities. Blackstone is reported to manage now over $250 billion worth of property worldwide, and the Colony purchase comes on the heels of previous warehouse acquisitions of Singapore’s GLP […]