Tricera

Based in Miami, Florida, Tricera Capital focuses on valued-add, urban retail and mixed-use investments, with deals that range in size from $2M to over $100M. The company raises capital on a deal by deal basis, primarily from high net worth investors. When Tricera Capital implemented Juniper Square, they had less than $10M in AUM, a number that grew to nearly $100M in under two years.

Since its inception, Tricera Capital has invested aggressively, at the pace of almost one new investment per month. Like many new firms, the company was focused on deal sourcing and investment execution to build value for Tricera’s investors. Business process and system considerations were not a priority initially, and as such Microsoft Excel was the default system of record for all investor, asset, and transactional data.

As Tricera closed more investments with increasingly larger pools of investors, the company’s business processes were strained, almost to the breaking point. Ari Sasson, VP of Acquisitions at Tricera, explained: “Our whole process was getting very unruly, and I was worried that something would fall through the cracks. The back and forth during the subscription process alone – sign, scan, execute, scan, resend – was unsustainable given our deal flow.”

When Sasson approached the two principals of Tricera with the challenges he faced, they suggested he survey the market for investment management software solutions. He reached out to peers in the Miami and New York real estate investment communities for recommendations, and received multiple endorsements for Juniper Square. In fact, the one person he spoke with on a competitive platform was in the process of transitioning to Juniper Square!

Sasson noted, “I had demonstrations of a few solutions. At first I thought they were the same, but after a feature to feature comparison, Juniper Square was clearly the technical leader. They had seamlessly automated what other vendors were pretending to automate but in reality doing manually.”

References were another factor. “The Juniper Square users I spoke to were so effusive about the product, and the caliber of their customer service, that the choice became obvious very quickly,” he added.

Since implementing Juniper Square, Tricera Capital credits Juniper Square with increasing operational efficiencies, saving five hours in a typical week, and allowing the company to avoid hiring a full-time investment analyst.

“I’m in Juniper Square every day. It’s amazing to have everything related to each cycle of our business all in one place. I’ve saved countless hours of my own time, saved money on additional staff, and I have much more confidence in our processes,” said Sasson.

Given the frequency of their fundraising, Tricera Capital quickly adopted Juniper Square’s powerful online subscription feature, which automates the workflow of offering subscriptions. The end-to-end capability of the feature provides multiple benefits: increased transparency, faster close times, and happier investors.

Noted Sasson, “It’s game changing for me to be able to see where our prospects are in the subscription process. I can understand who’s legitimately interested, and spend time on our most promising potential investors. Our repeat investors love the fact that they can leverage the information they already have in Juniper Square – like legal and account details – to autofill the online subscription document. It’s a great experience for them, and reduces the commit to close time for us.”

Scott Sherman, Co-founder and Managing Principal of Tricera, added, “Juniper Square is one of the best investments we’ve made for our company. We’re very happy that we implemented the software early on, as it enabled us to grow quicker and more efficiently. The software has allowed us to scale our AUM at a pace that would be impossible without it. It’s rare to find something that can offer a best-in-class experience for both managers and investors.”

Metrics as of 5/1/2022