The strategic investor for real estate

What we do

Second Century Ventures brings a highly collaborative approach to venture capital. In addition to capital investments, we provide unparalleled market expertise through strategic partnerships, our diversely skilled team, and access to a rapidly growing global community of entrepreneurs and practitioners. We fuel innovation through investment, people and technology.

We are backed by the National Association of REALTORS® – a 1.4M member strong trade association with 100 bilateral partnerships across 85 countries.

Our Investment Themes

We are an early to mid-stage technology fund seeking investment opportunities in proven enterprises that will drive industry growth, enable new usage models and advance industry standards. SCV prefers SaaS companies generally focused on big data applications, digital media, fintech and business services that can span multiple verticals and geographies.

Criteria

Second Century Ventures invests in strong teams and technologies with the potential to serve multiple industries. We are round-agnostic, favoring investments in organizations with strong market traction and proof of product market fit.

As a strategic investor, SCV provides unparalleled value within the real estate vertical. We take a long-term approach to investing – where each new addition is considered part of the family – with access to all the tools available at our disposal.

SCV’s growth accelerator, REACH, provides a program and pathway for earlier stage companies or those new to the real estate vertical and its adjacent industries. Learn more about the REACH program below.

NAR REACH is the #1 scale up program for growing technology companies seeking to serve the real estate industry.

In 2013, SCV created REACH, a hands-on growth program to help launch and accelerate technology companies into the marketplace. To date, REACH has graduated more than 80 companies, opened a program dedicated to technology for the Commercial RE sector (REACH Commercial), and further expanded its global presence with three new programs based outside the U.S. (REACH Australia, REACH Canada, and REACH UK).

To learn more or submit an application for REACH, visit narreach.com

Mark Birschbach

Managing Director, Second Century Ventures

Mark Birschbach is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Business, Innovation & Technology (SBIT) for the National Association of REALTORS® and Managing Director, Second Century Ventures.
Mark and his team seek to drive innovation in real estate and benefits to NAR members through strategic relationships with a broad range of business and technology players. Those strategic relationships drive significant non-dues revenue, return on investment, and cost savings to NAR members.

In addition to his responsibilities overseeing Second Century Ventures and REACH, Mark is responsible for the REALTOR Benefits® Program with over 30 partners that provide significant cost savings and drive non-dues revenue to NAR; responsible for researching emerging technologies and their potential impact on the real estate industry; NAR’s top level domains (.realtor and .realestate) business, its products business, and NAR’s relationship with Move Inc., operator of realtor.com®.

Prior to joining NAR, Mark was a technology entrepreneur, serving as President and COO of two real estate tech startups. Prior to his startup experience, Mark was a Vice President in Investment Banking at Citi where he led transaction teams during the execution of M&A and capital markets transactions across a broad range of industries including a significant focus on technology, media and telecom. Mark is active in the entrepreneurial and technology communities serving as an advisor and consultant to several start-up companies. Mark received a BBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Dave Garland

Managing Partner, SCV & REACH

Dave Garland is responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities that promise to improve the global residential and commercial real estate industries. He brings over 18 years of strategic advisory experience to numerous venture-backed, public and private real estate companies – bridging these entities with established brokerages and technology firms. As a startup investor, he sits on several boards of growing real estate and mortgage technology organizations.

As an industry practitioner, Garland has acquired, owns and manages portfolios of single family residential, commercial and development properties across America. During the housing crisis, he worked with key organizations to create practical solutions for thousands of real estate professionals, including critical short sale programs instrumental in helping homeowners survive the great recession.

Garland holds an MBA from the Melbourne Business School and BA, Summa Cum Laude, from Notre Dame. He has also attended advanced programs at Oxford and Stanford and is a licensed real estate broker. Garland works from the Silicon Valley office in Menlo Park, CA.

Bob Goldberg

CEO, National Association of REALTORS® and Chairman, Second Century Ventures

Bob Goldberg is Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of REALTORS® and Chairman of Second Century Ventures. During his tenure, Goldberg has focused on transforming the organization and leading efforts to put members first, while driving the technology innovation and collaboration needed to position the real estate industry for the future. Working with the association’s volunteer leadership, Goldberg has specifically emphasized the importance of staying ahead of “proptech” or “real estate- and property-focused technology.” Under his leadership, NAR launched the Strategic Business Innovation and Technology Group (SBIT), designed to drive industry innovation and benefits to NAR members. The group includes an Emerging Technology team, tasked with finding partnerships with organizations, companies and institutions researching and developing new technologies. The team also launched the successful Innovation and Opportunity Investment Summit (iOi), a unique yearly gathering of real estate practitioners, technology innovators and investors to identify opportunities to work together.

In addition to his role as NAR CEO, Goldberg is President of NAR’s investment arm, Second Century Ventures, as well as the highly ranked REACH technology accelerator. Through those entities, NAR holds positions in a range of technology companies, driving innovation for the benefit of the industry and NAR members. In addition, he is president and CEO of the REALTORS® Information Network (RIN), a for profit, wholly-owned subsidiary of NAR, where he’s responsible for oversight of the realtor.com® operating agreement with Move Inc.

Bob Extended Bio: https://www.nar.realtor/bob-goldberg

Lynette Keyowski

Managing Partner, REACH Canada

Lynette Keyowski is the Partner at REACH Canada with over 12 years’ executive leadership and management experience in the North American real estate vertical, with a focus on delivering innovative, technology-based solutions to enhance the property transaction ecosystem.