COMPANY

Name: LEX Markets

Legal Name: LEX Markets Corp.

Location: New York, New York

Founded: 2017

Founder(s): Drew Sterrett, Dean Sterrett and Jesse Daugherty

Website: https://www.lex-markets.com/

Social Media Following: 51 followers on LinkedIn

INDUSTRY – Commercial real estate market in the US

Size: $1.1T in 2019 (Source: IBSWorld)

Introduction

LEX Markets, a real estate fintech company, makes it possible for individuals to easily make well-informed commercial real estate purchases through the publicly issued stock of the issuer.

At the same time, property owners get to raise capital more efficiently and cost-effectively as LEX Markets enables them to sell a minority interest at fair market value.

Hence, users can search, buy, and sell individual properties on this unique commercial real estate securities marketplace.

The Product

LEX Markets gives real estate owners a new format of equity financing, by bypassing the illiquidity problems they face. The platform also makes sure that owners needn’t worry about brokerage fees, paperwork, communication with the SEC, property financial audit, and liquidity discounts.

LEX Markets also gives individuals access to commercial real estate that would ordinarily be out of their budget. What’s more, the online brokerage platform offers greater transparency and research functionality to prospective buyers. And since LEX Markets features Regulation A offerings that are SEC and FINRA reviewed, users don’t need to lose sleep over the security of their transactions.

To get started with the trading, all users need to do is sign up for a new LEX Markets account. Once the onboarding is complete, they can start purchasing shares in individual properties, listed on the site. Each of these properties will also feature CRE research to help users make more informed decisions.

The shares start at $100 a pop at initial offering. And LEX Markets leverages such modest pricing to open up the real estate marketplace for investment from a more diverse set of people.

The brand website does say that they hope to “establish a trading system through which the shares of LEX Markets issuers can be freely tradable between users.” Currently, this trading system is still being designed.

Origin and Founding Team

LEX Markets was born out of the unfulfilled desire of brothers Drew Sterrett and Dean Sterrett to invest in expensive commercial real estate alongside institutions. They had previously invested in real estate but saw a barrier to access the best deals in the market. This was primarily because, as individuals, they couldn’t afford the rates paid by institutions, nor could they access online real estate markets without an accredited investor status.

To bridge all these gaps, the duo set up LEX Markets in 2017.

Performance and Trends

LEX Markets was selected to be part of the first Catalyst NYC Cohort at the NYU Tandon Future Labs, as announced in May 2018.

According to Owler, the startup has also secured around $50,000 in funding.

Note: LEX Markets was previously known as LandWright. This article was published before the startup’s rebranding, and it has been updated to reflect the changes in its brand identity.