Building the Growth Team at JLL Spark
Earlier this month, we officially announced that Eric Wittman joined JLL Spark as Chief Growth Officer. JLL Spark is the venture arm of JLL, the Fortune 500 commercial real estate firm (NYSE: JLL), that operates a $100 million venture fund investing in proptech startups that benefit from JLL distribution channels and feedback loops. Chief Growth Officer is a new role to lead our fantastic growth team, which is a key part of our approach to the VC platform model.
Eric builds on the success of JLL Spark’s already established global growth team, which acts as a strategic advisor, preparing portfolio companies for opportunities with the JLL network and vice-versa. Since the beginning of the year, our team has created more than 100 opportunities, benefiting portfolio companies as well as the core JLL business and clients. Eric is working closely with Andrea Jang in the Americas, Tanguy Quéro in EMEA and Anuj Nangpal in APAC to advance the growth team’s efforts.
As a seasoned business leader, product executive and investor, Eric is uniquely suited to excel as chief growth officer. He brings a strong track record of leading, managing and advising high-growth technology companies. Prior to joining JLL Spark, he was the chief operating officer at Figma, where he was responsible for hiring the business leadership team, launching the company’s first paid product offering, growing the business from zero to over 3,000 customers, and raising a $25 million Series B round. His previous experience includes general manager at Atlassian, CEO of Songbird, and senior positions with Adobe Inc.
Eric hit the ground running at JLL Spark, working closely with entrepreneurs like Vergesense CEO and founder Dan Ryan. Vergesense directly attributes more than 1,000 sensor sales to opportunities driven by JLL Spark’s growth team. Ryan explained:
“Eric has already proven to be a fantastic value-add, delivering practical advice and insight based on his years of experience growing and scaling technology companies.”
JLL Spark is unique in that we have a deep bench of both seasoned investors and operators. When you couple our team with the expansive JLL network, we can offer counsel, capital and customers unlike any other firm. We also bring a new strategic dimension to JLL’s client relationships that helps them evaluate and adopt proptech faster.
“We are witnessing incredible growth opportunities within proptech today. Now is the perfect time to transform commercial real estate leveraging new digital products.” — Eric Wittman
JLL Spark, which launched in 2017, invests in startups leveraging technology to improve everything from real estate development and management to leasing and investing, while enhancing the experience of those who occupy it. To learn more about JLL Spark and its innovative portfolio companies, please visit www.jllspark.com.
