Fifth Wall, one of the largest venture capital firms focused on global real estate tech and proptech, announced closing €140 million (~$160m USD) for its European Real Estate Technology Fund (European Fund), according to a press release.
The firm says European Fund is aiming to accelerate European proptech innovation adoption and replicate Fifth Wall’s successful core North American Real Estate Tech Funds. Fifth Wall now holds approximately $3 billion in capital under management.
The European proptech market is pretty substantial when you look at the global market. According to PitchBook data, the European proptech market represented 20% of all global proptech activity in 2021, including €3.8 billion of venture capital investment in over 200 deals. This is 3.5 times the investment levels of 2020, with the median proptech deal size increasing from €1.6 million in 2019 to €3.2 million in 2021.
The round included participation from a number of large real estate owners and developers, including Aldar Properties, Azora Capital, BNPL Paribas Real Estate, Conren Tramway, DAMAC Group and others (continued below).
“We are thrilled to expand our firm into Europe as we aim to replicate Fifth Wall’s position as the leading proptech investor in North America with this expansion into Europe and Israel,” stated Fifth Wall co-founder and Managing Partner Brendan Wallace in the release.
“The success of Fifth Wall’s model is premised on identifying the leading proptech companies and accelerating their growth through Fifth Wall’s global network of more than 90 strategic investors. Having so many of the leading European real estate firms supporting our European Fund will enable us to help accelerate the expansion of the proptech ecosystem in Europe and Israel,” Wallace said.
In order to increase European adoption and technology innovation, Fifth Wall says it potentially plans to target co-investing opportunities alongside its North American Real Estate Tech Funds, with a focus on Series A to Series C rounds.
The firm has already started investing in Europe, with notable recent funding participation including Spanish iBuyer platform Clikalia and on-demand grocery delivery company Gorillas.
“The value of being invested in Fifth Wall’s European Real Estate Technology Fund is the early exposure to transformative proptech solutions and the guidance of the Fifth Wall team in exploring new ways to solidify Redevco’s business model,” said Patrick Brenninkmeijer, Business Development Director at Redevco.
“The great appetite for the fund underlines the importance of technological innovation for the real estate industry and we look forward to continuing the fruitful partnership with Fifth Wall,” Brenninkmeijer continued in the release.
Additional fund participants include Gestilar, Inmobiliaria Colonial, Ivanhoé Cambridge, Knight Frank, MERLIN Properties, MOMENI Group, NEINVER, affiliates of Northwood Investors, Pecunia, PGIM Real Estate, Pontos Group, Redevco, SEGRO and Tramway Capital.
In other recent proptech news, IDIQ acquired Resident-Link to expand its renter credit building features. Ark7 is also planning to allow users to dip into IRAs for fractional property investment.