Fast-growing Cincinnati fintech Akru has named a well-known local politician and Ohio governor candidate to its board.
John Cranley, Cincinnati’s mayor from 2013 to 2021 and a former real estate lawyer and developer, has joined Akru’s board of advisors as chairperson, effective Jan 5. He will lead a team of eight in the role.
Mohsin Masud, Akru's founder and CEO, said Cranley will provide leadership on real estate assets and strategy. The company is building a blockchain-based platform to allow for fractionalized real estate investing.
Cranley previously worked as a real estate lawyer and developer and spearheaded a major restoration project in the Queen City's Incline District in East Price Hill. Cranley is currently a candidate in the 2022 Ohio gubernatorial election.
“Cranley is a proven and effective leader who knows first-hand that Cincinnati serves as a beacon to talent and innovative fintech startups,” Masud said in a release. “He brings to Akru unparalleled experience and leadership through his work as mayor and in the real estate development industry."
Cranley co-founded the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati Law School in 2002, a program that has exonerated 34 people from Ohio prisons, often through DNA testing, during his time as a city councilman. He was elected the city’s 69th mayor in 2013, and term-limited, officially announced his run for governor in August. He will face Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley in the Democratic primary.
Cranley's campaign plan, among other proposals, promises to supercharge Ohio entrepreneurship by creating businesses and jobs from Ohio’s university-based research and development.
”Akru offers a truly innovative approach to real estate investing that will give people without connections, but a willingness and desire to invest in real estate, a meaningful chance to do so,” Cranley said in the statement. “I am excited to help…and making sure people know all that Akru can offer.”
Masud founded Akru, formerly known as Tokenism, in 2018 as a way to democratize commercial real estate investments. The company participated in gBETA’s Cincy program in 2020 and was named a Cincy Inno “Startup to Watch” for 2022.
Akru platform breaks down a property’s value into tokens that can then be purchased by investors, creating a lower barrier to entry since the buyers are only purchasing a portion of a property.
The startup has received backing from a number of venture capital firms, including Southern California-based Draper Goren Holm, a venture studio focused on blockchain startups.
It’s also eyeing international expansion. The company has Midwest-based assets on the platform but intends to expand into the Sun Belt and South, the coasts — and in the coming years across the European Union and Asia.
