RET Hires Proptech Veteran Monte Jones as Platform Partner, Expands Investment Team with Three New Hires

Alongside fellow new hires Melissa Fagan, Jaymie Fung and Julia Lambert, industry veteran will help guide the leading VC as it scales operations and expands multifamily and SFR owner base

PARK CITY, Utah--()--RET Ventures (‘RET’), a venture capital firm focused on technologies for the multifamily, single family rental and broader real estate asset classes, today announced that it has appointed multifamily technology industry veteran Monte Jones as Platform Partner. Concurrently, RET announced that it has added three members to its investment team, Melissa Fagan, Jaymie Fung Bingham and Julia Lambert.

Jones comes to RET Ventures with nearly two decades of experience in the multifamily industry. For four years, he served as President of On-Site.com, an end-to-end marketing and leasing platform for the apartment industry. In these roles, he was responsible for leading all customer-facing departments as well as business development, acquisitions and strategic planning within the company. Under his leadership, the company’s sales team was successful in growing revenue by more than 200%, leading to its ultimate $250-million exit to RealPage in 2017. After the sale, Jones developed and led several specialized sales and go-to-market teams, integrated newly acquired companies into the RealPage system and left RealPage as its Chief Experience Officer.

In his new role at RET Ventures, Jones will engage across a range of functions, including coaching portfolio companies, drawing on his deep industry expertise as an operator; helping build and implement RET’s own internal technology stack; and lastly, building out the firm’s “Affiliates” initiative.

The Affiliates program will be a collection of forward-thinking multifamily and SFR owners and operators who are interested in gaining access to the technology companies RET backs. Many of the leading multifamily REITs and private operators have already gained close relationships to these technologies by investing in RET’s funds. However, for companies that are not RET Strategic Investors, the Affiliates program offers an inside track of access to leading technology companies in the RET portfolio.

Currently, RET’s Strategic Investors represent approximately 2.5 million multifamily and SFR units across the U.S. and Canada — a figure that makes the prospect of an RET investment particularly alluring to startups looking to grow their user base. Through the Affiliates program, RET is looking to help drive innovative technology across a broader potential user base.

“As an industry-backed technology investor, RET is uniquely positioned to provide our portfolio companies with access to a broad swath of institutional owners and operators, and adding Monte to the team will enable us to further broaden our reach,” said RET Ventures Partner John Helm. “We also place great importance on helping portfolio companies scale quickly toward profitability, something that has become an even greater priority amid the current economic uncertainty. Monte’s unique skillset and ability to mentor early-stage companies and CEOs will be instrumental as we expand our portfolio and, with our Strategic Investors’ help, lead the industry towards a more technology-driven future.”

Added Jones: “Given recent macroeconomic headwinds, real estate owner-operators are increasingly looking for innovative solutions to help streamline their operations. RET has built a tremendous reputation by backing technologies that have immediate applications for owners across the entire real estate ecosystem. In its first five years, RET has already delivered tremendous value to a wide range of stakeholders, and I look forward to working with John Helm, Christopher Yip and the rest of the team as we pursue the fund’s goal of elevating technology in the rental housing sector.”

In addition to Jones, RET also announced three additional new hires over the last six months:

  • Melissa Fagan has joined RET as a Vice President. Fagan previously served as an investment associate for KSL Capital Partners, and a private equity associate at Goldman Sachs. She received her bachelor’s degree in engineering from Princeton University.
  • Jaymie Fung Bingham has joined the RET team as an Associate. Prior to joining RET, Fung Bingham served as a private equity and venture capital associate at Ensign Peak Advisors. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Brigham Young University.
  • Julia Lambert has joined the RET team as an Associate. Lambert previously served as an investment associate at The Carlyle Group and Hanover Real Estate Investors (now Pacific Urban Investors). She received her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Stanford University.

With these four hires, RET continues its rapid growth over the past year. In April of 2022, the firm — along with Strategic Investors Essex Property Trust and UDR — launched RET Ventures ESG Fund, L.P. (“the Housing Impact Fund”), an investment vehicle to back the growth and implementation of ESG-focused technologies for the real estate sector. In June, RET announced the addition of former UDR President Jerry Davis and venture capital veteran Jacob Zornes to its growing team.

Since its launch in 2017, RET Ventures has backed more than 30 real estate technology companies, including category leaders in smart home technology, leasing tech, construction tech and sustainability technology.

About RET Ventures

A leading real estate technology venture capital firm, RET Ventures elevates real estate innovation by investing in cutting-edge technologies out of its core venture funds and a Housing Impact Fund. RET works in partnership with its base of more than 40 Strategic Investors who own and manage over $600 billion of real estate assets, with a particular focus on multifamily and single-family rental real estate. In these asset classes, the group includes some of the largest REITs and private real estate owners, operators and developers, who together control approximately 2.5 million rental units.

Through its deep expertise and network, RET has created a unique real estate innovation ecosystem that delivers significant value to the companies it backs, providing them with access to thought leaders, development partners and ongoing strategic guidance. For more information, please visit www.ret.vc.

Contacts

MEDIA
Shlomo Morgulis
Antenna Spaces
retventures@antennagroup.com

Contacts

MEDIA
Shlomo Morgulis
Antenna Spaces
retventures@antennagroup.com