Yaakov Zar and Greenspring Associates’ Hunter Somerville (Photos from Lev and Greenspring Associates)
New York City–based Lev completed a $30 million Series A funding round to help expand its commercial real estate finance platform.
The two-year-old startup, which uses data and automation to help building owners compare and secure financing, raised the funds from venture capital firm Greenspring Associates and First American Title.
Previous investors including NFX, Canaan Partners, JLL Spark, Animo Ventures and Ludlow Ventures all participated in the new round as well.
Lev co-founder Yaakov Zar said the round, which values the company at close to $130 million, will be used to hire more engineers and product designers in New York City, Miami and Los Angeles.
“Our focus is really to continue to build out our technology that will help our customers get the best experience,” he said.
Zar, who sold his previous logistics-management startup in 2018, co-founded Lev a year later with former Toll Brothers capital-markets specialist Sammy Greenwall.
The company facilitated about $100 million worth of loans last year and is on track to do $1 billion worth of deals this year, according to Lev.
In March, the company raised $10 million from JLL Spark and former executives from Trulia and LoopNet.
Lev has also been hiring commercial real estate veterans. In January, it picked up Justin Piasecki from Avison Young as a managing partner to help lead the firm’s strategic growth.
It also tapped Eastdil Secured https://therealdeal.com/new-research/topics/company/eastdil-secured/ and HFF veteran Greg Goldstein to lead the expansion of its second Los Angeles office.
Correction: A previous version of this article gave an incorrect figure for Lev’s valuation.
