Today, Philip Michael, CEO of NYCE, and his business partner FC Barcelona striker, Martin Braithwaite, team up with Danny Cortenraede, CEO of InStudio Ventures, to launch a tech-powered real estate fund, NYCE IMPACT, to power $500 million in community-owned deals.
On the heels of a record-setting raise, fintech NYCE is joining forces with Cortenraede, CEO of InStudio Ventures, an early stage seed fund which invests and builds the next generation of sports, media and tech companies. In addition, Cortenraede is also Co-Founder & Partner of Wannahaves, a leading digital agency powered by its platform 433, the largest online content creator with 55M followers across its digital assets and 5B views per month.
Their joint goal is for NYCE IMPACT, a $75M tech-powered real estate fund, to be the largest community-owned real estate fund in the country. In September, NYCE became the fastest real estate company to sell $1M in micro-shares via Reg. CF during the pandemic. NYCE recently completed a joint venture deal to develop $477M of luxury apartment buildings.
“Since launching in April, we’ve helped 2,000 people of color become first-time real estate owners through our portfolio. We pretty much started from zero—zero dollars, zero followers. With Danny, we can scale this investor community and make some serious impact,” said Philip Michael, CEO of NYCE.
Built around a mission to create 100,000 first-time millennials and Gen Z investors, NYCE IMPACT will offer access to NYCE’s existing $500M+ real estate development pipeline via their REIFY by NYCE mobile app and third-party platform. Dubbed the “Robinhood of real estate,” the app currently has a waitlist of over 50,000 people.
“Real estate and communities are things I’m extremely passionate about. I was a part of starting Wannahaves and 433 from nothing and created a multi-million dollar franchise. My firm InStudio Ventures is already leading investments across multiple markets including technology, sports, and media. Similarly, Philip and Martin also started their portfolio from scratch. We can utilize our combined reach and know-how from our day-to-day businesses to create a community and investor powerhouse. We really want to empower people to take control of their financial future,” said Cortenraede.
With the partnership, the idea is to create the largest community-owned real estate fund, owned both by athletes and fans. The partnership will include scaling their collective 1M+ followers on Instagram, powered around motivational and business content.
In addition to the executive team, NYCE IMPACT boasts an all-star legal and auditing team that’s engineered multiple IPOs. Kendall Almerico, a top securities lawyer, will lead the SEC-filings, compliance and investor relations.
“We have the extensive experience to make sure it gets done correctly, compliantly, while looking out for investor interests, first and foremost, and that includes options for investors to have liquidity in a portfolio like this, which is rare for non-accredited investors to have access to,” said Almerico, who’s engineered over 50 Reg. CF and Reg. A+ offerings.
Earmarked for a January debut, the first investment offerings are expected to include a 24-unit luxury rental building in Downtown Philadelphia, a 327-unit complex in Texas and a follow-up to the successful TEMPLE 1 raise that counts Chicago Bulls point guard Wendell Carter in its investor lineup.
“That’s definitely something we’re looking to explore further—especially with our respective networks—to add more stars. Kids look up to their idols and how cool would it be to invest and own alongside your idols? That’s something I would have dreamed of as a kid and I’m honored to be a part of making that opportunity a reality,” said Martin Braithwaite, FC Barcelona and NYCE Partner.
