Pi Labs, a global proptech venture capital firm based in London, has revealed its latest cohort of startups for its 2022 Growth Program – marking its largest and most international accelerator to date.
Having launched in 2014, Pi Labs was Europe’s first proptech-centered VC firm and has invested in more than 60 startups ranging from AI-driven construction platforms, to design software for architects to intelligent warehouse management.
Unlike its previous nine accelerator programs, Pi Lab’s 2022 cohort will cater to a more advanced teams in terms of business stage, according to TechRound, with startups being evenly split between pre-seed and seed funding stages.
This year’s 10 companies – notably double that of last year’s – will be ushered into a 16-week online and in-person hybrid plan that will give the startups access to global tech and real estate professionals, advisors, venture partners, mentors, investors and alumni. The companies will also receive an initial investment from Pi Labs with the possibility of additional funding later down the road.
Pi Labs’ tenth accelerator class follows an unprecedented year for the proptech sector as venture capital investments in real estate technology companies hit $32 billion in 2021 – $9.5 billion of that within the last two months of the year, according to the Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation.
“Proptech is now a household name in both the public and private equity markets,” MetaProp co-founder Zach Aarons said after the release of the CRETI report. “The cat’s out of the bag.”
Below are the Pi Labs 2022 initiates – its most globally diverse and which include four female founders:
- CONXAI (Germany): The first no-code AI platform for the architecture, engineering and construction industries.
- Firmus (Israel): Utilizes advanced AI technologies to analyze building drawings’ data, uncover and manage the mitigation of hidden design issues that have a potential impact on bidding and building processes.
- Flown (UK): Rooted in neuroscience, Flown is a groundbreaking digital platform which provides on-demand mindfulness content to enhance working life and support ‘deep work.’
- GREENPASS (Austria): Enables planners, developers and investors to compare the climate resilience of different project designs to optimize the sustainability and profitability of real estate developments and open spaces.
- Laiout (Norway): Automates the creation of early-stage architectural floor plans.
- LiveCosts (Ireland): Smart construction software to automate cost management for builders and contractors.
- Modulize (Norway): A single collaborative software solution for offsite construction, optimising design, planning and procurement.
- Moonhub (UK): A virtual reality training platform for the workplace, designed to scale, provide high level data and employee analytics.
- Route Konnect (UK): Real-time video processing to help organizations understand the movement of people and vehicles across large multi-camera locations whilst fully preserving anonymity.
- SymTerra (UK): Built to eliminate uncertainty from construction sites, SymTerra is an integrated communication tool that enables teams to rapidly share knowledge and capture change in real-time.
Fasial Butt, CEO and Founder of Pi Labs, told TechRound 70% of last year’s cohort have already raised capital to grow.
Butt has stayed confident on the rise and popularity of proptech on a global scale, noting previously that evidence from within and outside their portfolio suggests the later-stage funding activity the world saw in 2021 is unlikely to slow. At this rate, it’s possible Europe could see one or more new PropTech unicorns either this year or next, Butt said.
In a company post, Butt added he expects early-stage capital to flow into a number of exciting PropTech themes including the metaverse, no code and low code platforms, circular economy and the environment, and blockchain as well as robotics.