April 6, 2023
The 24th Annual Private Equity Summit held by iGlobal Forum in New York City went off without a hitch on March 29th. There were many notable guests in attendance like “real estate luminarie” and the conference’s keynote speaker, Philip Mintz, in addition to CEOs of investment firms, real estate partners, and more.
Among the many guests, members of Prophia’s marketing and sales team, as well as CEO, Cameron Steele, and CTO, Chris Hsu, were in attendance to answer questions about Prophia and witness Cameron participate in a panel discussion on March 30th.
Cameron Steele’s Panel Appearance at iGlobal Forum
The theme of this year’s Private Equity Summit hinged on funding alternatives. Amidst financial uncertainties like rising interest rates, inflation, and liquidity challenges, many traditional lenders, such as banks and financial institutions, have pulled back on their lending significantly in recent years. This has made capital a bit more difficult to come by, leaving those in property ownership and private equity sectors to seek alternative sources of capital.
On Cameron’s panel, the group of four executives discussed portfolio management and which business sectors, particularly in real estate, were primed to capture the interest of investors going forward.
THE FOUR EXECUTIVES ON THE PANEL
Cameron Steele, CEO & Co-Founder, Prophia
Cameron Steele excelled in vertical SaaS for approximately 20 years when he founded Prophia in 2018. With a masters from the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth and experience leading hospitality disrupter, buuteeq, for a number of years before the small team was purchased by Booking Holdings/Priceline Group in 2014. This cross-industry focus on technology primed him to become the perfect leader of Prophia, a small AI/ML Proptech startup tackling CRE’s greatest data challenges.
Elizabeth Bell, Principal, Real Assets Investment, Hamilton Lane
As a Principal in the Real Assets division of Hamilton Lane, Elizabeth Bell is in charge of evaluating potential investments in real estate, including primary, secondary, and co-investment opportunities. Before joining Hamilton Lane in 2022, Bell worked as a Managing Director at Jaguar Growth Partners, where she led private equity investments in Latin American real estate. Bell also worked as an Investment Manager at Aberdeen Asset Management on the Property Multi-Manager team and as a Vice President at Equity International, where she was responsible for investing in real estate companies in emerging markets.
David Hamm, Senior Managing Director and Head of Real Estate, Wafra
David Hamm is the Senior Managing Director and Real Estate Head at Wafra and is responsible for the performance of real estate investments and the execution of investment strategies for traditional real estate. Prior to his time at Wafra, Hamm worked as a Managing Director at DWS RREEF America LLC, where he led the East Coast transactions team, specializing in office, retail, industrial, and multifamily products for direct equity and structured debt investments. During his 19-year tenure at DWS, he completed transactions worth over $7.0 billion.
Gary Beasley, CEO & Co-Founder, Roofstock
Gary Beasley is the key figure and founder of Roofstock. He has extensive industry expertise from leading various real estate, hospitality, and tech companies, and believes that disrupting the industry is worth doing by critically challenging the status quo and constantly innovating. Beasley has a successful track record of launching companies, and has been recognized for his achievements in the fintech and real estate industries. He holds a BA in Economics from Northwestern and an MBA from Stanford.
PANEL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Which real estate sectors are generating the most interest from investors?
- In this environment, is it better to focus on strategies rather than geographies? If so, which strategies?
- Credit as a strategy: opportunities and challenges for real estate private equity firms
- Where are the opportunities in distressed investing today and how will those opportunities evolve?
- Risk management: securing assumable financing, getting as much duration as possible, hedging out interest rate risk and maintaining reserves at a fund level. Which approaches are most important?
- Valuation of real estate assets: when will there be a significant narrowing of the bid ask spread in private real estate?
- Off market deals: is the volume likely to increase? If so, why?
- With automation and AI dominating discussions in other major industries, what new technologies are you enlisting to support portfolio management and your overall investment strategy?
Navigating the Financial Waters of Commercial Real Estate
In addition to tackling the data challenges of a large, established industry like CRE, Prophia is making it possible for major firms like RXR, Spear Street Capital, and Nuveen to conduct business, improve data access times, and reduce some of the major costs associated with asset management. To learn more about Prophia, reach out to us directly to request a demo and get a product tour tailored to your firm's unique data challenges and needs.