Tishman Speyer, a large New York-based real estate investment firm, announced raising approximately $100 million at the first close of its debut proptech fund, according to a press release.
The firm is seeking to raise a total of $150 million for the Tishman Speyer Proptech Venture Fund, which launched to the market late last year, to follow up its 19 proptech investments since 2017. Those investments went to a number of notable startups and industry players, including OpenSpace, VTS, Agora and Latch.
It says that the fund is focused on early investment in tech firms, with the majority of funding planned for Series A and Series B funding rounds.
Notable fund anchors include two of the world’s largest institutional investors, including the National Pension Service of Korea (NPS) and Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO).
NPS will deploy its capital through the NPS-Tishman Speyer Thematic Platform, a separately managed account launched by the two organizations last year. This investment is part of a total $1 billion account, split into four strategy parts by that partnership.
IMCO also previously partnered with Tishman Speyer in 2019 in a $500 million initial commitment joint venture, which focused on the acquisition and development of U.S. office and residential properties.
The fund is already on pace to become the fourth $100 million-plus investment vehicle in the proptech sector this year. It follows Fifth Wall‘s European Real Estate Technology Fund (€140M), Camber Creek‘s fourth fund in February ($325M) fund and Taronga Ventures‘ open ended RealTech Ventures I fund ($170 million in capital secured to date).
These highlight the growing activity within the property and real estate technology sector, with a record $32 billion deployed by investors last year, according to the Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation’s (CRETI) “2021 Real Estate Tech Venture Funding Report.”
“We are at the very beginning of a technology revolution that is impacting everything about our industry,” Tishman Speyer told PERE.
The firm also noted that, in addition to capital gains on its investments, it plans to continue targeting technology companies that can add value to its existing real estate portfolio and management stack.
“Each of the technologies have led to improvements in our business. It’s very complementary. The returns are not just financial, it also creates terrific value for our real estate assets because it positions them at the front of the market,” the company said, adding that every startup it has invested in so far has been used by one of its operating teams.
Tishman Speyer is a large American real estate investment firm, with notable properties including Rockefeller Center (NY), One Federal Street (Boston), and the CNN Building (Los Angeles). The firm also acted as project manager for the construction of the new Yankee Stadium.
In other recent proptech news, Comunidad Partners completed an inaugural $300 million social impact fund aimed at providing affordable housing. Handle.com also raised a $10 million Series A for its construction payment compliance platform.