Deepki, a French-based ESG data intelligence platform, announced raising a $166 million (€150M) Series C co-led by One Peak and Highland Europe, according to PlaceTech.
The company says the fundraise sets a record for largest ever by a climate tech software company in the real estate sector. It says it will use the funding to hire 200 people in 2022, expand and grow within the U.S. and carry out strategic acquisitions.
Founded in 2014, Deepki provides a SaaS platform that enables clients to collect ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) data, provides investment plans to reach net zero carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency and assess results.
“The global real estate sector needs to act now if it is to halve its emissions by 2030 and meet the net zero target by 2050. This represents a huge market opportunity for Deepki,” said cofounder and CEO Vincent Bryant.
“Today’s new funding announcement means that Deepki can make a greater impact and support even more asset owners in taking on the climate change challenge, and we are pleased to have our new partners Highland Europe and One Peak, as well as Revaia and Bpifrance Large Venture on this journey,” Bryant added.
The platform utilizes partnerships with carbon and ESG experts to provide data collection, analysis, strategy definition and implementation strategies. The company automates these processes, using APIs, web scraping and SFTP server connections, and even enables data extraction for use in certifications, according to TechCrunch.
The company currently has 150 employees across five European cities and monitors buildings representing over 500 million square meters of space.
It also secured a number of significant new European clients in 2021, including AEW and Tikehau in France, Generali RE and DeA Capital in Italy, Allianz Real Estate and Warburg HIH in Germany, Azora Capital and Neinver in Spain, and several global property and asset managers in the UK, according to the release.
Deepki says it has seen 100% year-on-year growth since 2019 and believes that this trend will continue into 2022, stating that the real estate sector has been placing increased importance on ESG performance and combating climate change.
The real estate sector is currently responsible for about 40% of the Earth’s carbon emissions, which has led an ongoing charge to monitor and reduce the amount of environmental impact coming from the market.
The World Green Building Council Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment recently set a target to reach net zero by 2050, highlighting this movement. It says that more than $5 trillion worth of investment is needed each year to decarbonize the built environment and ensure the sector can meet this target, according to PlaceTech.
Deepki estimates that the value of the monitoring and analytics market required to reach this goal will be worth between $5 billion and $10 billion by 2025, with year-on-year growth of 20%.
New investors Bpifrance and Revaia, and existing investors Hi Inov and Statkraft Ventures, also participated in the funding round.
In other recent proptech news, Jia Finance raised a $5 million seed round to connect foreign investors with U.S. homes and funding. Clear Capital also launched two new desktop appraisal solutions to meet new GSE standards set by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
