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Jointer CEO Jude Regev on Making Real Estate Investing Affordable, Attainable and Interesting

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April 29, 2019

A next-generation commercial real estate platform, Jointer was established in 2017, as based in both Silicon Valley, California and Tel Aviv, Israel. The company is a growing leader in artificial intelligence, tokenization and blockchain-based technology innovation for the commercial real estate industry. In short, the company issues debt tokens to borrow money from the public to help property owners instantly unlock their equity at zero costs.

Jointer recently grabbed some headlines when it submitted a bid for the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City. Ultimately, Jointer appears to be the first company to take the extra step to tackle public tokenization of assets rather than private tokenization which all current tokenization platforms provide. Currently, tokenized properties are only available to the very wealthy, which runs counter to the principles of blockchain.

Jointer’s CEO Jude Regev is an international digital currency expert, who taught himself English while he was rolling out his own business. I had the pleasure of doing Q&A with Regev, and below are highlights from that interview.

Jewish Journal: How would you describe Jointer to someone not yet familiar?

Jude Regev: The easiest way to understand Jointer is to look back at another major problem in real estate: historically, landlords wanted to lease large amounts of office space, but tenants sought to only rent a desk. WeWork stepped in and solved this issue by providing the landlord with one check while giving tenants the ability to lease one desk.

Similarly, in the commercial real estate industry, there is a problem that has existed for over 200 years. Investors want to diversify their portfolios and because of this, sponsors cannot receive one check and they have to do syndication to raise funds. This is a very time-consuming process and causes sponsors to miss out on lucrative deals since real estate is time sensitive.

Enter Jointer and our new tokenization model. Investors will receive tokens for their investments that are pegged to the Global Select REIT Index rather than one property. This process allows Jointer to provide sponsors with one check forming a JV partnership. To attract sponsors and investors to this new and scalable process, Jointer is offering to double their current returns.

JJ: When did you first become interested in real estate?

JR: Since the big subprime crisis in 2007. I started to underwrite properties and realized that property gets sold below its value because the public follows the lead of fears and psychology. Then I realized that if I follow the numbers, eventually I’ll identify opportunity before the public does.

JJ: A lot of people took notice when Jointer submitted a bid for the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City. Any update on that?

JR: The deal is in progress, and it’s a shame that the organizations involved in the sale did not have the foresight to see the value of our new tokenization model, especially as major companies such as JPMorgan Chase have recently announced they will issue their own token and Facebook announced a $1 Billion crypto project, the Facebook coin. Tokenization is here to stay.

JJ: Chrysler bid aside, what is coming up for Jointer?

JR: We’re beginning to fill the trust with properties to increase the cross-collateral investors receive. The more properties we tokenize, the more reduction in risk we are able to provide our investors.

We are also preparing to close our Series A round which will provide us the fuel needed to handle our waitlist of properties to tokenize.

JJ: Given the split operations of Jointer, how much time of the year do you usually spend in Israel?

JR: I try to get to Tel Aviv at least twice a year for a few weeks to visit and meet with Lior Gal, our Chief Technology Officer.

JJ: Is there anything that you’re as passionate about as real estate?

JR: I’m passionate about building companies like Jointer and our other company, the Element Zero Network, which fell out of the Jointer project. I’ve been involved in five start-ups and three exits. I LOVE what I do, and believe that people should work as much as they like on the stuff they love. I have a great international team and I am energized by their talent and their commitment to building solutions for the benefit of all, not just a chosen few.

JJ: I feel compelled to ask: Can you share a memory about your bar mitzvah?

JR: At the time of visiting the Western Wall, I remembered thinking, “Why do people go all the way to Rome to see 2,000 years of history of one religion, when right here we have 5,000 years of amazing history covering all religions?” And that all the world is missing it.

JJ: Finally, Jude, anything else you would like to add?

JR: I think the Jewish community has a proud history of leadership in the Commercial Real Estate industry. Real estate has traditionally been a means for immigrants to develop an independent source of income and rise out of their circumstances. But in today’s marketplace, high investor minimums, coupled with the traditional real estate process makes commercial investment unattainable for many who wish to enter the market.

Through Jointer’s tokenization model, it is our goal to open the market to all who want to participate, not just a chosen few. I hope your readers will visit our website, Jointer.io to learn more about us. We are on a mission. And we hope this community will support our vision.


More information on Jointer can be found online. 

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