Akru, a Cincinnati real estate investing startup, continues to add to its roster of investors.
Earlier this month, the company announced angel investing group Milwaukee Venture Partners was among those participating in its $2 million funding round. That round also includes the company's investment from Santa Monica, Calif.-based heavyweight Draper Goren Holm.
Formerly called Tokenism, Akru allows users to invest in fractions of commercial real estate properties for as little as $1,000. The platform is aiming to have 1,000 users by the end of the year.
Using blockchain, 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.
"Arku.co is taking an illiquid asset and making it easy to invest,” said Charles Truitt, a Milwaukee Venture Partners member who co-chaired the group's research team for the Akru investment. “The key is behind the tokens is a tangible asset."
Milwaukee Venture Partners co-founder and vice president Matthew Friedel was the other research team co-chair.
"(Akru) is an excellent demonstration of the potential of blockchain technology," said Friedel, a senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Friedel is teaching a new class at UWM's business school that's about entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence and blockchain, he said. He's also the co-founder of the Disruptive Technologies Lab at UWM, which focuses on research, innovation and collaboration around those topics.
Last month, Milwaukee Venture Partners closed on an investment in Madison biotechnology firm Immuto Scientific, Friedel said.
