Real Estate Technology Ventures has closed an early stage venture fund focused on making investments in technology for the multifamily industry.

Real Estate Technology Ventures I is a $108 million venture fund that invests in technology for the multifamily industry. “We want to identify innovative companies founded by strong entrepreneurs that will help our limited partners better operate their portfolios,” said John Helm, managing director at Real Estate Technology Ventures.

The limited partners include five major multifamily real estate investment trusts: Aimco, Boardwalk, Essex, MidAmerica, and UDR; and the owners of Starwood Capital Group, Cortland, and GID, which own or manage almost one million rental units. They consider the new technologies in the $31.8 trillion real estate industry as investment opportunities.

The aim is to provide entrepreneurs with immediate access to some of the largest multifamily and single-family operators in the U.S., and perhaps, reduce the sales cycles for their services. According to Real Estate Technology, there are more than 40 million rental units in the U.S. RET Ventures’ deep ties within the real-estate industry give it a unique ability to gauge the market’s appetite for new technologies and help create market leaders.

RET Ventures is led by John Helm, who worked as chief financial officer of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co. before building and selling AllApartments-SpringStreet and MyNewPlace. Also, he was Venture Partner at DN Capital in Germany.

“RET Ventures has created a unique win-win proposition built upon their extensive experience in real estate technology and proven ability to identify high-growth companies,” said Michael Schall, president and CEO of Essex Property Trust.