Real estate investing start-up Cadre has inked a $250 million partnership with Goldman Sachs
- Cadre, an online commercial real-estate investing platform that has raised more than $130 million in funding, has secured a partnership with Goldman Sachs.
- The deal provides Goldman Sachs' private wealth clients with access to Cadre's platform.
- Goldman clients have committed $250 million in capital so far, with a few-hundred million more in the pipeline.
Commercial real-estate investing startup Cadre has inked a partnership with Goldman Sachs that will provide the bank's private wealth clients easy access to the fast-growing online platform.
Cadre, which offers users digital access to vetted commercial real estate opportunities, has closed $250 million in commitments from Goldman Sachs' clients, with a few-hundred million more in the pipeline, according to founder and CEO Ryan Williams.
As part of the partnership, Goldman's private wealth clients are furnished with a log-in for Cadre, which will provide another option to the many funds and investment opportunities available to Goldman clients.
Goldman Sachs, in addition to the just announced strategic partnership, is an investor in the company.
What sets Cadre apart is ease of access as well as a promise of transparency and lower fees compared with real estate private equity funds and real estate investment trusts.
The way the platform works is that approved real estate "operators" can post carefully vetted commercial properties -from stores to apartment buildings to offices - and Cadre's clients, many of them high-net worth individuals who previously didn't have access to such deals, can invest large chunks of cash on individual properties, according to a profile in 2016 by Alyson Shontell:
On Cadre, the platform looks like an e-commerce store - just with price tags ranging between $50 million and $250 million.
When you click on one of the buildings, you're taken to a beautiful landing page full of stats and information that's presented like a baseball card, with a transaction overview, executive summary, the purchase price, how much equity is available, a dynamic FAQ section and more.
For sellers, Cadre is an opportunity to get a deal done relatively quickly and cheaply - if your property is accepted (only about 1% of everything Cadre's team vets gets listed on the platform).
The minimum investment Cadre typically accepts per transaction today, according to the company website, is $100,000.
Partnerships like the one with Goldman will give the young company flexibility to expand the platform without focusing so narrowly on high-net worth clients.
"It's exciting because in many ways I see our vision being realized even faster than I had anticipated," said Williams, a Harvard graduate who worked at Goldman Sachs and Blackstone Group before founding Cadre three years ago.
The firm has closed about $1 billion in deals since inception, raising more than $130 million from high-profile investors like Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Ford Foundation, Jared and Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital, and General Catalyst.
"Our goal is to ensure we provide our clients with innovative and diverse investment opportunities to help them drive returns and protect capital," Eric Lane, global co-head of Goldman Sachs' Investment Management Division, said in a statement. "Our ongoing partnership with Cadre underscores this commitment."
Cadre is firmly focused on developing the partnership with Goldman Sachs, according to Williams, but he said that additional partnerships were likely to come down the line as well.