Celebrating AppFolio Investment Manager Award Winners
This year marks our inaugural analysis of the capital raised and operational activity across all AppFolio Investment Manager customers, and the results are truly exceptional.
Join us as we celebrate the most successful fundraisers and operational pioneers of the 12 months ending October 2025. These firms demonstrate that superior performance is the direct result of operational excellence and an unwavering commitment to the investor experience. The winners of the AppFolio Investment Manager Awards have set a new standard for the industry.
Performance and Growth Awards
These awards recognize firms that achieved exceptional strategic execution by growing their equity under management (EUM) and rapidly scaling their deal volume.
Growth Champion: Highest Growth in Equity Under Management
This award celebrates the general partner (GP) that attracted the most new capital, showcasing true scalability and market confidence.
Winner: DLP Capital
Key Achievement: Highest EUM growth over the last 12 months
The firm's impressive equity under management growth this year is comparable to adding the gross domestic product of multiple small island nations, reinforcing that AppFolio Investment Manager scales right alongside ambition to ensure the platform handles massive capital influx.
About DLP Capital: DLP Capital is a private real estate investment firm focused on transforming lives through the building of Thriving Communities. Together with their investors, they finance, develop, construct, and operate safe, attainable rental housing for America’s working families — including multifamily, single-family, manufactured housing, and outdoor hospitality communities. With over $5.25 billion in assets under management and a track record of consistent returns, DLP Capital provides accredited investors with access to a suite of evergreen real estate investment funds. Through strategic partnerships and purpose-driven lending, they empower other real estate sponsors to create housing solutions that improve lives.
Led by CEO Don Wenner, DLP has over $5 billion in assets under management, over 3,800 investors, and 13 years on the Inc. 5000 list. DLP has the goal of positively impacting and transforming 10 million lives by funding the building of 5,000 “Thriving Communities”, becoming one of America’s 100 largest private companies.
The firm is headquartered in St. Augustine, Florida. The team prioritizes purpose and performance to generate favorable returns and a measurable impact on America’s affordable housing crisis.
Capital Magnet: Largest Single Raise Through the Platform
This award highlights the ability to execute large, complex, and highly structured capital raises efficiently.
Winner: Cardone Capital
Key Achievement: Largest single raise of $354+ million for the last 12 months
Cardone Capital’s largest raise hitting $354 million reinforces that AppFolio is able to handle the largest and most complex capital formations, from simple syndications to multitiered fund structures.
About Cardone Capital: Grant Cardone, Founder and CEO, created Cardone Capital in 2016 to provide everyday investors with access to the institutional-grade real estate deals that are normally reserved for only the largest investors. Cardone Capital is changing real estate by combining trophy property with Bitcoin. Cardone Capital created one of the largest Real Estate + Bitcoin hybrid funds to date, and they continue to acquire best-in-class real estate — including their most recent trophy asset, 101 Via Mizner in Boca Raton.The firm operates across Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Maryland, and Georgia, with over 19,000 investors and $5.3 billion in assets under management.
Investor Engagement Awards
Transparency builds trust. These awards recognize the GPs who have fostered the deepest, most engaged relationships with their limited partners (LPs) by using the AppFolio Investor Portal.
Expansion Leader: Biggest Increase in Investor Base
This award recognizes the firm that successfully expanded its community, leveraging the portal to attract and convert new LPs.
Winner: Cardone Capital
Key Achievement: Added approximately 650 investors in the last 12 months
The addition of 650 new investors means Cardone Capital’s community is now bigger than most high school graduating classes, proving AppFolio helps firms grow their investor network while maintaining highly personalized communication.
Operational Efficiency and Portfolio Performance
In 2025, maximizing net operating income required eliminating manual bottlenecks and leveraging technology to manage assets efficiently.
Automation All-Star: Most Workflows Automated
We celebrate the firm that drove the highest operational savings by replacing manual tasks with automated workflows.
Winner: Ashcroft Capital
Key Achievement: 21,000 distributions sent to LPs
By automating 21,000 distributions, Ashcroft Capital saved hundreds of hours, demonstrating that this level of automation is crucial for eliminating errors and ensuring timely, accurate payouts.
About Ashcroft Capital: Founded in 2015, Ashcroft Capital is a multifamily investment firm focused on acquiring large apartment communities across U.S. Sunbelt markets. Since inception, the firm has completed 62 acquisitions, primarily across Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia. Ashcroft is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Dallas.
Ashcroft’s strategy centers on acquiring apartment communities and executing targeted renovations and operational improvements to enhance the resident experience while driving value for investors.
The Expander: Most Assets Added
This award recognizes the GP that demonstrated scalability and flexibility across multiple strategies, rapidly onboarding new assets and doors.
Winner: Thompson Thrift
Key Achievement: Most doors added to their portfolio
The successful addition of a high volume of units proves that coast-to-coast domination is unlocked, supported by the platform’s seamless integration between investment and property management to ensure rapid onboarding regardless of scale or strategy.
About Thompson Thrift: Founded in 1986, Thompson Thrift is an integrated, full-service real estate company with offices in Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Indiana; Houston, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Denver, Colorado. The company is engaged in all aspects of development, construction, leasing, and management of high-quality real estate projects across the country. It has developed over $5.6 billion in residential assets, over 25,300 units, and over $1.7 billion capital deployed. The team prides itself on a strong company culture of excellence, service, and leadership and a commitment to its core values. Additionally, the company has been recognized as an NMHC Top 50 Top Developer and Top Builder.
Community and Culture Awards
We celebrate the users who are fully integrating AppFolio into their daily operations, turning the platform into their central hub for investment management.
Most Active Explorer: User Who Logged In the Most
This award recognizes the ultimate power user who relies on AppFolio as their daily operational command center.
Winner: Robert Pereira from ARC Multifamily
Key Achievement: Most active in AppFolio Investment Manager
Robert's impressive activity in Investment Manager embodies the strategic use of AppFolio as a unified hub for asset management, investor relations, and capital raising.
About ARC: Robert Perreira founded ARC Multifamily Group in 2019 and is a real estate industry veteran with over two decades of investing and operating experience. ARC is a vertically integrated multifamily investment and asset management company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, investing in value-add multifamily properties. ARC’s focus on great people, process, and properties enables them to achieve their aim of doubling an investor’s capital over a 5 year property ownership timeframe. In addition to managing capital and structuring deals, Robert has personally managed over $120 million of construction and over $450 million of value-add residential real estate projects since 2008. Robert has led ARC Multifamily Group to acquire over 2,000 apartment units in the Southeast United States.
The outstanding achievements of these firms in 2025 highlight the power of leveraging technology for operational excellence, rapid growth, and deeper investor trust.
Congratulations to the Investment Manager Award winners and all of our Appfolio customers on a successful 2025 and beyond!
We pride ourselves on empowering private real estate investment managers with cutting-edge automation and AI designed to streamline operations, maximize returns, and cultivate a base of loyal, repeat investors. AppFolio helps real estate businesses of all sizes simplify their day-to-day workload with easy-to-use tools — regardless of asset class, investment vehicle, or investment partners. The Investment Manager platform supports syndication, fund, and private real estate investment trust management, as well as diverse investor bases, from high-net-worth individuals to family offices to institutional capital.
Interested in exploring the AppFolio features that helped these award-winning firms achieve their impressive results? Sign up for a demo today!