From a young age, Bar Mor knew that he would inevitably do something in the real estate field. His family has been involved in all types of real estate projects, from basic construction to management of residential, commercial and retail properties.
But unlike his parents, Mor also had a passion for technology. His interest in technology deepened when he became commander of Unit 8200, the Israel Defense Forces’ elite cyber intelligence division known for creating technology entrepreneurs.
After leaving the military, he decided to combine his two passions: Mor noticed that many real estate investors do not have a dedicated system to track the various back-office processes such as managing the cash collected on the rent, calculation and distribution of income to their LPs. and many other administrative functions.
“We’ve seen companies struggle to manage all of these things using lots of disjointed spreadsheets, emails and (other) systems that don’t interact with each other,” Mor said.
This realization led him, along with his Unit 8200 friends Lior Dolinski and Noam Kahan, to found Agora, a software company that manages data, automates reporting, streamlines fundraising processes, and provides accounting and tax services to real estate investment companies of various sizes.
Mor said that during his first fundraise, he told investors he was building Carta for real estate. The comparison is easy to see: Carta manages cap tables for startups and venture capital firms, as well as other administrative functions. Since real estate investing is also data-intensive, investors need tools that automate manual work and calculate returns.
Agora has tripled its revenue every year since its launch five years ago. Thanks to its strong growth, the company announced on Thursday that it had raised a $34 million Series B from Israel-based growth fund Qumra Capital, alongside historic investors Insight Partners and Aleph. This funding brought Agora’s total funding to $59 million.
Mor said raising this latest round was not difficult for the company.
Although some real estate investors have struggled with rising interest rates, Agora has continued to grow and maintain a high customer retention rate, Mor said. “It shows that we are actually solving something that is not a good thing.” It’s a must. »
Agora currently operates primarily in North America, Europe and Israel, but it plans to begin serving customers in other markets, including Central America, South America and Australia.
Mor’s family background in real estate continues to help him build the business.
“I understand how we as a people think, what he cares about and how he negotiates,” he said.
This knowledge has informed various aspects of Agora’s business, including how account managers interact with clients. Each customer has the mobile phone number of their account manager.
“The real estate guy, he has his broker, he has his lawyer, he has his banking relationship. He wants everything like that,” Mor said, putting his hand near his ear as if he were holding a phone. “The idea is that we are your technology partner. “Do you need anything with your technology?” Call Agora.’
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