Draper Goren Holm Backs Real Estate Investing Platform AKRU

Draper Goren Holm announced the firm’s newest portfolio company: AKRU. The SoCal Venture firm led by Tim Draper, Alon Goren, and Josef Holm, has invested an undisclosed amount in the real estate investing platform with goals to make the democratization of commercial real estate a nearby reality. 

“We’re so excited to welcome them into our family as Mohsin and his team have a proven track record of understanding the sector on an intimate level, making them well-positioned to become the industry leader in real estate tokenization,” said Alon Goren, Founding Partner at Draper Goren Holm. 

The CEO of AKRU, Mohsin Masud, spoke about the importance of being a part of Draper Goren Holm led by Alon & Josef who are industry experts in blockchain and fractional investments, and Tim Draper known for picking early-stage companies like Twitter and Skype. Mohsin met Alon & Josef at the beginning of the pandemic during an event the firm produces called Blockchain & Booze, kickstarting a valuable partnership. “We’re honored to partner with Tim Draper, Alon Goren, Josef Holm, and the amazing team and portfolio at Draper Goren Holm,” said Masud, “We are excited about bringing our vision of a more liquid and accessible market to life with strong partners who believe in what we want to do.”

AKRU headquartered out of Cincinnati OH, provides an opportunity for users to invest in premium commercial real estate with as little as $1,000. In tandem, it allows asset owners access to a broad pool of investors, and wealth managers to further diversify their investment portfolios. By offering fractionalized investments, the platform is working towards tackling and transforming long-held real estate issues like illiquidity of assets, bureaucratic hurdles, expensive middlemen, and lack of available data and transparency. 

Masud and his team believe that tokenizing real estate provides unprecedented opportunities and convenience for an array of real estate stakeholders. Masud also believes in the strength of his product, so much that the company launched in 2018 and was self funded for the next two and a half years. From there, the company raised $650,000 in a friends and family investor round and has recently announced its series seed with a goal of raising $2.2 million. Having first-hand knowledge of the issues within real estate from an established career, Masud sought out an international team of experienced leaders and developers to build out the perfect solution, the platform AKRU. 

Masud also emphasizes the significance of blockchain as an immutable ledger of records that has potential to make the real estate financial ecosystem more efficient and secure. AKRU uses the benefits of blockchain technology to enhance security and liquidity, but is able to integrate the technology in a user friendly way. The platform’s unique use of blockchain further attracted the attention of Draper Goren Holm, leading the firm to include AKRU in its portfolio. The partnership is promising and will prove to be beneficial for the modern-day real estate investor. 

Photo by Olenka Kotyk on Unsplash

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