A Cincinnati-based startup just earned the backing of some of its industry's biggest names.
Akru, which aims to increase access to real estate investing through technology, announced Friday it has received an undisclosed investment from Los Angeles-based Draper Goren Holm. The funding comes as officials work to complete a $2.2 million round of seed funding, according to a news release.
The venture capital firm specializes in helping early-stage startups in both the fintech and blockchain space. Its founders — Tim Draper, Alon Goren and Josef Holm — are well-known players in the space. Draper's most notable investments include some of the technology industry's biggest names, such as Twitter, Tesla and Skype; meanwhile, Goren and Holm are the duo behind two of the world’s top blockchain investment conferences, Crypto Invest Summit and Security Token Summit. (Akru founder and CEO Mohsin Masud recently unveiled the company's rebranding at the Security Token Summit.)
According to a news release, Masud first met Goren and Holm a year ago at a "Blockchain & Booze" event.
Akru's platform takes commercial real estate and breaks down properties' values into tokens that can then be purchased by potential investors, thereby creating a lower barrier to entry for real estate investing since investors are only purchasing a piece of a property rather than the full thing.
Currently, its platform serves more than 50 users, with the goal of having more than 1,000 users by the end of 2021. By midyear 2022, Masud hopes to have secured the regulatory approval to open the platform up to retail investors.
Akru is an example of a local fintech business leaders hope to foster in the coming years through their Fintech Frontier initiative, which counts Cintrifuse, Western & Southern Financial Group and Fifth Third Bancorp among its biggest backers. The initiative's goal is to help position Cincinnati as a hub for financial technology innovation.
