T
he bright spot in San Francisco's contracting real estate market has been the rapid expansion of AI tenants, with companies like OpenAI and Anthropic driving demand for office space. To secure these high-profile clients, Raise Commercial Real Estate, a startup founded by Justin Bedecarre, had become the go-to firm for emerging AI companies. In 2023 and 2024, Raise facilitated San Francisco's largest office leases, and its proprietary technology allowed it to manage real estate holdings in one place.

    However, in a surprise move, Raise announced this week that it has been acquired by global real estate giant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, but the sale price was not disclosed. Bedecarre described the acquisition as "David joining forces with Goliath," and expressed excitement about scaling his company's vision for the industry.

    Raise's proprietary technology, which includes an Airbnb-like platform for managing real estate holdings and tools for measuring office usage, will be integrated into JLL's 110,000-person company. Bedecarre will report to Andy Poppink, a former professional basketball player who leads JLL's Markets Advisory team. The acquisition is part of a decades-long trend of consolidation in San Francisco's commercial real estate industry.

    Industry experts say that publicly traded firms like JLL use acquisitions to grow their balance sheets and acquire talent in areas where they're falling behind. For example, CBRE acquired Custom Spaces in 2017, which had an impressive roster of clients including Uber and Airbnb. The acquisition will not trigger layoffs at Raise, despite generating some redundancies.

    JLL's purchase of Raise gives the company a leg-up on the next wave of tech growth, as OpenAI recently raised $6.6 billion in what ranks as the biggest funding round of all time. Bedecarre is excited about the opportunity to work with JLL and believes that his technology will make their tools more powerful. As for having a boss for the first time in over a decade, Bedecarre says he's genuinely excited, feeling that his vision has been proven right and now validated by JLL.