In 2017, JLL started JLL Spark Global Venture Fund, a venture capital arm. A year later it announced that it planned to invest upwards of $100 million into real estate technology startups. Recently, the company said that it had made more than $340 million in investments since June 2018.
In 2019, then-head of growth in the Americas at JLL Spark described the fund as aiming at being "be hyper focused on growth, understand the business's core clients and how those clients operate, understand the product, and be able to take a product and disperse it through a client's organization."
It's not unusual for larger companies to develop venture capital arms, particularly in the technology arena, with Intel, Qualcomm, Comcast, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, and Meta all examples. The practice isn't limited to traditional high tech. Patagonia, Walmart, Toyota, and even 7-Eleven all have their VC funds.
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