HqO Raises Over $50M in Series D Funding to Revolutionize the Real Estate Landscape

BOSTON, Oct. 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Addressing the secular shift in how, where, and when people interact with their professional and personal environments, HqO, the world’s leading real estate experience platform, announced today it has raised over $50 million in Series D funding to fuel the company’s mission to disrupt the real estate industry. The funding round was led by Koch Real Estate Investments, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, along with participation from many of the company’s existing investors, leading venture capital and commercial real estate firms including Accomplice, Insight Partners, and Related. The additional capital brings the company’s total funding to over $200 million, bolstering an already strong balance sheet and positioning the company to continue executing on its targeted M&A strategy.

“As the real estate industry continues to radically evolve, we firmly believe that its future lies in the convergence of innovative technology, data, and customer-centric experiences. By developing cutting-edge technology and tools that prioritize user sentiment, HqO is not only adapting to the rapidly changing real estate industry, but driving its progression. With HqO’s vision and our investment, we are confident that together we are building a more transformative ecosystem,” said Justin Wilson, Managing Director at Koch Real Estate Investments, who is also joining HqO’s Board of Directors.

There has been a fundamental evolution in the real estate economy as space has moved from a required commodity to a service, and now to an experience. This is being driven by a confluence of factors, most notably the shift in the way work and life now commingle. As a result, real estate not only needs to be more flexible to meet the needs of end-users, but it must also connect with them through experience. In response, HqO has created a new market category, the Real Estate Experience (REX), putting the customer and their experiences of space at the center of this significant market transformation for the first time.

In addition, HqO is continuing to scale and innovate its customer-centric product offerings with the launch of the HqO REX Platform, the first end-to-end experience solution built around the customer. HqO’s REX Platform answers many pain points across the real estate ecosystem for owners, operators, and occupiers alike. Through a suite of powerful applications and services, the REX Platform is the single source of truth for a property, assessing the health and performance of a customer's experience within it while providing the tools to manage and optimize it, all from one central location. This is proven to boost tenant and employee retention while increasing net operating income and driving efficiencies in operating costs.

“The world has dramatically changed over the last few years, especially the way we work, live, and interact with our surroundings. In this environment of digital disruption, data, technology, and a focus on the customer are not just options; they’re mission-critical to compete,” said Chase Garbarino, Co-Founder and CEO at HqO. “HqO is here to reimagine the status quo and lead the charge toward a more connected, efficient, and user-centric real estate experience. We’re doubling down on our commitment to connect real estate to the people and help create spaces that truly serve the evolving needs of those who use them.”

Building on the success of HqO’s existing real estate experience product, now called Experience Manager (XM), which has powered over 400 million square feet around the world, Intelligence is the newest and most disruptive product within the REX Platform. Intelligence is the first and only industry standard for measuring and assessing the health and performance of a customer’s experience within a property. Through this revolutionary offering, users are able to gain immediate access to global real estate insights from more than 1.7 million employees and over 8,000 workplaces, collected through the proven methodology of Leesman, an HqO company and the industry’s most trusted workplace experience data source and benchmarking framework. Additionally, users can gather property-specific insights by deploying Intelligence at their properties.

The Intelligence suite of products includes:

• The REX Assessment—The industry-leading tool for quantifying employees’ workstyles, preferences, and overall satisfaction within a physical space
• The REX Score—The quantified value operators and occupiers get from a building using data from the REX Assessment to show the success of customers’ experiences at a property, which directly correlates to how likely a property is to achieve high occupancy, attract and retain tenants, and generate revenue
• The REX Index—The industry’s first global real estate user experience indicator, benchmark, and tool for certifying and exploring properties through the lens of people’s experiences, ranking the landlords and occupiers with leading REX Scores
  

HqO’s REX Platform also includes Marketplace, an exclusive ecosystem built for HqO’s customers, both operators and occupiers, to help deliver optimal experiences for end-users of real estate by providing access to and integration with a growing directory of the most impactful and desired services and amenity partners.

HqO’s REX Platform has already connected over 350,000 users to real estate across 700 properties in over 32 countries. It has helped owners, operators, and occupiers to better understand and engage with tenants and employees while meeting their people and business goals. HqO services real estate clients worldwide, including Related, Vornado Realty Trust, Nuveen Real Estate, Jamestown L.P., Hudson Pacific Properties, Grosvenor, Legal & General Investment Managers, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Hines, abrdn, LaSalle, Primonial, ARC and Chiswick Park.

About HqO:
HqO is leading the transformation of the way people experience real estate by converging data, technology, and the customer. Through its Real Estate Experience (REX) Platform—a powerful and dynamic suite of applications and services—HqO has powered over 400 million square feet at over 700 properties across 32 countries. The world’s most innovative organizations rely on HqO to drive operational excellence by maximizing and boosting tenant and employee acquisition, retention, and engagement.

For more information, visit www.hqo.com.

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