Fifth Wall, the venture capital juggernaut centered on real estate technologies, revealed it raised more than $1.1 billion across its funds in 2021, highlighting the massive gains to be made in the proptech space.
According to a Tuesday release, Fifth Wall invested in over 25 new portfolio companies within the past year, and celebrated five IPOs from companies in which it previously invested, including Procore, Blend, Doma, Hippo, as well as SmartRent (which managed its public debut in a merger with Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp.) The firm now boasts just over 90 limited partners.
“We’re in the Golden Age of proptech with enormous secular growth demonstrated by the record-breaking amount of capital being invested into proptech by LPs,” said Brendan Wallace, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall.
Based in Los Angeles, the firm previously invested in non-real estate centered businesses as well such as Lime, AllBirds and ClassPass. However, Wallace and co-founder Brad Greiwe have increasingly emphasized the disruptive nature property technology has had on venture capital.
A recent study conducted by Center for Real Estate Technology and Innovation revealed that in 2021 $32 billion was invested in real estate tech companies, including commercial, construction, residential, multifamily, and other real estate sectors.
This level of funding is 28% higher than that of 2020. The global proptech think tank estimates an additional $7 billion of capital was injected into the real estate tech ecosystem this past year – mirroring closer to numbers previously seen in 2019.
“When we started Fifth Wall in 2016, proptech was a niche VC investment category; yet, real estate was and remains 13% of US GDP,” Wallace added.
Since then, Fifth Wall has seen explosive growth. Fifth Wall Acquisition I, Fifth Wall’s first SPAC, closed its $345 million initial public offering in February. By March, Fifth Wall Acquisition II, its second blank-check company, filed with the SEC to raise up to $150 million in an IPO. And once more in April, the company launched Fifth Wall Acquisition III.
Among its endeavors, Fifth Wall also scored a $140 million for its Early-Stage Climate Technology Fund – up from $116.8 million in September, when the firm last disclosed its fundraising efforts for the climate investment vehicle in an amended SEC filing.
In December, the firm announced it had brought in prolific clean-tech investor Greg Smithies to head its efforts to “decarbonize the built world.”
“We remain committed to growing our consortium-based approach to venture capital focused on technology for the global real estate industry, anticipating and facilitating connections among owners and operators of real estate with the entrepreneurs inventing the next wave of tech and climate tech innovation,” said Wallace.