Berlin, 29 September 2022 – The independent venture capital platform for transformative real estate technologies PropTech1 („PT1“) is starting fundraising for Fund II. Thanks to the renewed participation of numerous investors from the first fund as well as well-known new investors, the minimum threshold for a first closing totalling €30 million has initially been reached on the basis of commitments and expressions of interest. The fund is scheduled to start operations at the beginning of 2023.
Fund I, which was oversubscribed at €50 million in 2021, will now be followed by the second fund vintage with a target size of €100 million. Based on the experience from the current 15 investments of Fund I and well over 2,000 analysed companies from the real estate innovation sector to date, the VC investor is following its previous approach, which has been further developed in some sub-aspects.
Thematically, Fund II will also follow the approach of covering a „best-of“ of the sub-sectors of real estate innovation, which are often classified in the market under the terms PropTech, ConstructionTech or UrbanTech, and will in particular address major market trends such as the sustainable transformation of the real estate industry, its interplay with energy and infrastructure issues as well as the burning question of climate resilience.
Already in an early sounding, the second fund vintage of PT1 met with a lively response and can thus report more than 20 commitments and expressions of interest (some still soft commitments, subject to review steps or board decisions) totalling €30 million. With a planned minimum threshold of €30 million, a first closing and thus the operational start is therefore planned for the beginning of 2023.
The first, so-called launch partners of the second fund include numerous returning investors from Fund I as well as many new companies and entrepreneurs such as (in alphabetical order):
- the BRUNATA-METRONA Group, for 70 years one of Germany’s leading service providers for the real estate industry concerning the responsible use of the environment and resources;
- evoreal, a project developer active throughout Germany;
- JLL Spark Global Ventures, the corporate venture arm of JLL;
- the Liechtenstein Group, which is owned by the Princely Family of Liechtenstein and – in addition to the sectors of Agriculture & Food, Forestry and Renewable Energy – invests in innovative and sustainable concepts in the real estate industry;
- Otto Wulff, a family-run full-service real estate provider for 90 years;
- the Scout 24 Group, among others operator of the number 1 online platform for residential and commercial real estate in Germany;
- the Supernova Group, which focuses on the development and management of high-quality retail properties in Central and Eastern Europe.
Once again, many real estate entrepreneurs, (former) CXOs of the real estate industry and leading digital entrepreneurs continue to intend to invest, for example:
- Andreas von Blottnitz (US business angel, Chairman Appfolio);
- Jan Henric Buettner (former CEO AOL Europe, founder e.ventures / Headline);
- Michael Busch (former CEO / Managing Director of Thalia for many years);
- Klaus Freiberg (formerly COO Vonovia, founder 1648 Factory);
- Tomas Jandorf (owner Tetris A/S, Denmark);
- Sanders Lee (founder / Chairman Hopewell Group, Canada);
- Marcus Lehmann (CEO Lava Energy);
- Michael Lowak (former CEO GETEC, Kofler Energies, MVV Energiedienstleistungen);
- Robert Oettl (founder ORO VENTURES Group, former CEO TÜV SÜD Advimo);
- Birgit Rahn-Werner (CEO Indevise Group);
- Florian Stetter (Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Deutsche Wohnen SE);
- Sander van de Rijdt & Ibrahim Imam (co-founders PlanRadar);
- Christian Vollmannn (CEO CarbonOne).
PT1 Fund II is expected to start operations after its first closing in early 2023, after Fund I has successfully completed its initial investment phase. PT1 will take on additional investors beyond the launch partners until the target size is reached.
From the perspective of founders and portfolio companies, PT1 offers a strengthened range of added value in addition to growth capital with the second fund and the operationally expanded team at the Berlin (HQ) and London locations as well as the regular presence in the European focus regions Nordics, Benelux and France. Thus, through its broad network, PT1 can support German startups in their internationalisation efforts into other European countries as well as European companies in their expansion into Germany and the UK. Through the multi-layered expertise of the investors from the real estate and digital division, PT1 continues to open access to a variety of customer bases and real estate portfolios and facilitates the acceptance of the young startups in the market through various marketing channels and events.