Obie, a Chicago startup that's building a commercial real estate platform, announced it has raised a seed round of funding and officially launched its product to the public.
Obie said Tuesday that it raised $2.8 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, MetaProp, FundersClub, Liquid 2 and Soma Capital. Opendoor founder JD Ross, Inkling founder Matt MacInnis and Rentlytics founder Justin Alanis also invested in the round.
The startup has built a cloud-based insurance and portfolio management platform for small- and medium-size commercial real estate funds and managers. Obie's platform gives owners information about their assets in once place, and allows them to collaborate with property managers, leasing brokers, LPs and others who need access to the property data.
Obie also offers property and casualty insurance and says it can help customers cut premiums by 10-15%.
The startup, which went through Y Combinator last year and participated in its demo day in August, officially went live today. During its invite-only period, it brokered insurance for over $1 billion worth of real estate and more than 100 million sq. ft. of property is now managed on its platform, the company said.
Obie is led by CEO Ryan Letzeiser, who founded the company with his brother, Aaron Letzeiser, after nearly a decade working in real estate private equity.
“The silent majority of commercial real estate owners and funds in the US have largely been ignored by advances in technology," Letzeiser said in a statement. "I spent countless hours in my previous life on time-consuming tasks that could easily be automated and consolidated in one place.”
