2024 Ones to Watch - Innovators in CRE: Yaakov Zar, Lev

Yaakov Zar is the founder and CEO of Lev. Zar started the company in 2019, and manages a team of more than 50 people across product and technology, sales and marketing, and operations. Zar has built the vision for the company and led the initiatives to get the product to market successfully, as well as the incredible fundraising and “company-building” activities that have been critical to Lev’s success (who’s raised more than $100MM in funding from a who’s who of VC firms and strategic investors).

Innovative Outlook: 

I see a major opportunity in digitizing the commercial real estate financing process using AI. I believe AI can transform the industry by automating data entry, providing real-time insights, and recommending next steps to brokers and sponsors. This shift will allow CRE professionals to focus on strategy and relationship-building rather than manual processes, ultimately speeding up transaction times and enhancing overall efficiency.

Innovative Solution:

I have made significant shifts to our business in this market environment to focus more on the technology and automation to empower various stakeholders in the CRE transaction. Many sponsors have experienced significant challenges working with their existing lender relationships in this market and have needed to build new relationships. I have doubled-down on our offerings to support sponsors meeting new lenders so they can maintain their activity on opportunistic transactions in the difficult market. My leadership on expanding the product offering to brokers has been a significant accelerating factor to help brokers who are also looking to differentiate in this more difficult market. 

“Yaakov led a team that designed, developed and launched the industry’s first data-driven, AI-powered CRM system. The platform enables CRE sponsors to connect with new lenders, manage existing relationships and automate the financing process. This new solution has significantly reduced manual data entry and enhanced decision-making processes, enabling sponsors to close deals faster and with greater efficiency. Earlier this year, Yaakov led an initiative to make the platform available to debt brokers.” - Alex Vlasto, Lev.