Atlas Make investments, which has developed a digital platform permitting actual property builders to boost capital and loans from buyers, has been voted by “Globes” readers as their favourite startup, as a part of the Globes Most Promising Startup Rankings for 2025. In second place was Port.io, which has developed an inside developer portal and platform for software program builders, and in third place was cybersecurity firm Zero Networks, which helps corporations cope hackers on enterprise networks, primarily in stopping ransomware assaults.
Some 6,000 “Globes” web site readers participated within the ballot over the previous week, which included 30 development stage startups. Different corporations within the ballot embody: cloud backup firm EON, which has grow to be a sensation with buyers; Asterix, the cybersecurity firm for AI brokers; AI-based programming engine Qodo; hospital fee system PayZen; and Agora, which gives a fintech resolution for actual property investments, from the attitude of managing joint investments in belongings.
Atlas Make investments’s story started virtually accidentally. Roni and Nir Peled, father and son, veteran builders in Israel’s actual property sector, started receiving surprising inquiries from actual property builders within the US, searching for financing for tasks. “At first, they did not perceive why they have been being approached,” says Tal Shahar, the CEO and third accomplice. “However slowly the image grew to become clearer – the banks are merely not fascinated by dealing with small, short-term loans, as a result of the working prices are too excessive for them.”
The necessity that these builders recognized, together with the shortage of response from banks, grew to become a chance. Shahar, who comes from a expertise and funding background, with a level in pc science and entrepreneurship, expertise in founding a earlier startup and a partnership within the enterprise capital fund Deep Perception, the place he’s nonetheless lively right now, joined the Peleds.
On the finish of 2022, they based Atlas Make investments to develop a platform that will join institutional buyers and actual estate-backed loans – exactly the place the standard market has problem working.
At the moment, simply three years after it was based, the corporate has places of work in New York and Tel Aviv, 24 staff – most of them in Israel – and has to this point brokered transactions value greater than $60 million by way of its platform, in accordance with the entrepreneurs.
The corporate doesn’t grant the loans itself, however relatively gives institutional entities – together with funding homes, funds and household places of work – with a technological infrastructure that permits them to handle and distribute investments in actual estate-backed loans within the US, whereas saving time and prices.
“We allow each events – builders who want fast financing, and buyers who’re searching for a stable choice – to satisfy in a wise approach,” explains Shahar. A stable choice, he provides, is an funding that’s thought-about comparatively secure – with low danger and steady returns. “Our expertise analyzes all transactions in actual time – asset valuation, danger identification, due diligence – in a a lot deeper and extra environment friendly approach than is at the moment frequent with personal lenders.”
Outdated market, new platform
The short-term mortgage marketplace for actual property builders within the US has been dominated for years by small personal lenders, which frequently function in a conventional, human-based method, with a lot of types, guide processes and sluggish response instances. “Anybody who begins a fund of $100 or $200 million shortly discovers that it’s tough for them to develop past that,” explains Shahar. “As such a fund grows, it might probably now not deal with a lot of small loans – it merely doesn’t pay for itself operationally. That’s the reason they abandon this subject, and that’s precisely the place we are available.”
Key gamers at the moment lively within the subject embody personal lenders comparable to Hirshmark and S3 Capital, which concentrate on offering financing to actual property builders, typically in quantities of tens of tens of millions of {dollars}. Alongside these, there are additionally corporations comparable to Sharestates, which affords asset-backed loans in a crowdfunding mannequin, and Upright, which primarily appeals to certified buyers.
In accordance with Atlas, most gamers out there nonetheless depend on conventional working fashions, with guide assessment processes and decentralized danger administration. As well as, Atlas Make investments’s nice benefit, in accordance with Shahar, lies in the truth that the system they developed permits them to handle a lot of small transactions effectively and shortly – or within the phrases of the expertise world, “work at scale” – to carry out many operations with out dropping management or growing the price of the method. He additionally stresses the concentrate on the quantity of loans, with the corporate concentrating – not like its rivals – on loans of as much as $20 million.
The corporate has a B2B enterprise mannequin, which addresses solely institutional entities. All loans offered by way of the platform are for actual property tasks within the US. “The primary cause for that is the provision of information,” explains Shahar. “Within the US, there’s excessive accessibility to knowledge – each on belongings and debtors – and this permits us to carry out an in-depth evaluation of every transaction. In Europe and Israel, this data merely doesn’t exist on the identical decision, so we’re at the moment centered on the US market. Sooner or later, we might develop, however not within the foreseeable future.”
Raised $13 million
Since its inception, the corporate has raised $13 million in three financing rounds, the latest of which was when it raised $8.5 million in November 2024. Among the many buyers are the enterprise capital funds State of Thoughts Ventures and The Storage Fund (which led the final spherical), together with personal buyers comparable to Man Gamzu, Boaz Schwartz, Jonathan Kolber and Roy Oron. Together with them are additionally the Anfield household funding workplace and holding firm SaxeCap.
Shahar says that Atlas is at the moment on the verge of closing a big cope with a big institutional physique – a deal, which is valued at double the whole quantity of capital raised to this point. “This deal will enable us to achieve profitability within the quick time period,” he says.
Shahar stresses that Atlas’ strategy differs from that of different startups in the marketplace. “I do not consider in working after funding with out a actual marketing strategy.” He says, “We’re shifting ahead responsibly – with precise income, lively prospects and development based mostly on a transparent want.” Within the context of current market turmoil and Trump’s tariff coverage, Shahar notes that uncertainty truly performs to their benefit. “In instances of volatility, buyers have a tendency to hunt stability,” he says, “and actual estate-backed loans are seen as a safer and extra enticing resolution.”
The Tech-IL Convention will happen on Wednesday, April 23 at Startup Nation Central in Tel Aviv, when the “Globes” rankings of the ten most promising startups in 2025 will probably be revealed. The listing is being compiled for the nineteenth yr by the votes of 80 enterprise capital tech buyers lively in Israel
Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on April 21, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
