The National Association of REALTORS®’ Second Century Ventures (SCV) has acquired assets of Elmspring, an accelerator investing in real estate technology. With the acquisition, SCV is expanding REach®, its own accelerator program, to include commercial-focused real estate startups.
“The acquisition of these particular Elmspring assets was a priority for NAR and Second Century Ventures to further source the best technology for our members,” says Bob Goldberg, CEO of NAR. “Bringing Elmspring into the REach® accelerator program will further NAR’s vision outlined at the iOi conference and create a dynamic, competitive real estate market that will help NAR advance our members-first mission for years to come. Thanks to the foundation built by Adam and Tom, the Elmspring network will help further increase the depth of the REachÒ accelerator portfolio with its first commercial class.”
In early 2019, commercial-focused companies can enter the program. Currently, applications for the 2019 competition are open to residential startups.
Elmdale Partners, LLC, was founded by Adam Freeman and Tom Bretz in 2010. Elmspring was founded in 2014. Elmdale recently earned a spot in the top 10 in Crain’s 2018 “Fast 50” companies ranking.
“Adam Freeman, Kim Kleeman and I are extremely proud of starting the first seed stage real estate accelerator in the country,” says Bretz, CEO of Elmdale Partners. “We now feel the time has come to hand off this successful program to NAR who can take it to the next level. We will continue to be involved as sponsors and mentors and look forward to watching the program grow.”
REach® was recently named one of the top 25 accelerators in the country by the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project (SARP), which is compiled by researchers from the MIT Innovation Initiative Lab for Innovation Science, Rice University and the University of Richmond.
In August, NAR and SCV hosted the inaugural Innovation, Opportunity and Investment (iOi) Summit, which included a competition for real estate startups.
For more information, please visit www.narreach.com.
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