Greensoil PropTech Ventures
Fall 2021 Newsletter
We are having a very busy year at Greensoil PropTech Ventures with excellent results to show for our efforts! Dive into this newsletter for fundraising and investment updates on our US $100M target second fund and two exits from our first fund. We also have news about our largest investment in Fund I, Electriq Power, and a recent interview with GSPV Managing Partner Dave Harris Kolada with Greensoil's take on current PropTech VC trends.
Investing for the Future of Real Estate - Fund II Updates
Driven partly by growing commitments of businesses and governments to achieve net zero carbon emissions over the next 30 years, the race for industry innovation in the fight against climate change has arguably never been greater. With the exciting launch of our new impact investing venture capital fund, we hit the ground running with a number of strategic investments aimed at helping connect the dots between PropTech and sustainability. We are thrilled to announce that we held our second closing in Q3 and now have US $56M in capital committed, putting us on track for our ultimate fund goal of US $100M. We are active in the market and you can check out our first investments, below.
Ahead of the Curve on “Smart” Air: Wynd Technologies
Wynd's technology detects, predicts and remediates air quality issues with proprietary sensors, software and analytics.
We were excited to join DBL Partners’ US $10 million Series A financing round for Wynd Technologies. Already well known for innovative air purifiers as part of Time Magazine's annual best invention list, Wynd will use the proceeds of this financing to grow the firm's pioneering enterprise-grade air quality management solutions. Wynd's AI-enabled technology detects, predicts and remediates air quality issues with proprietary sensors, software and analytics. Its technology can be integrated with major HVAC systems, supporting healthier spaces that help customers and employees feel safe in an age of pandemics and serious public health challenges, like wildfire smoke.
Read more here.
Property Management Reinvented: Home365
Home365 eliminates the worry about managing the day to day tasks of property management.
Prior to the summer, we led a US $16.3 million funding round for the California based company, Home365. A fast-growing hybrid of PropTech and InsurTech, Home365 offers single family and small multifamily owners a fully automated virtual property management solution, coupled with a novel disruptive Net Operating Income (NOI) guarantee that secures the performance of their investment properties and returns on investment (ROI). Both the automated virtual property management solution and the NOI guarantee can be achieved successfully as a result of the AI-based underwriting engine developed by the company.
“In Home365, we see a partner with the kind of proprietary technology and underwriting software that can disrupt the property management market and deliver game-changing results for cost-control, efficiencies and asset-value maintenance,” said Gideon Soesman, GSPV’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and a new Home365 Board Member. “We also see a huge opportunity to leverage Home365 to distribute more efficient, carbon-reducing products and services into a large number of single-family homes.”
Read more here.
Pays to be First: Oxygen8 Solutions
Oxygen8: Changing the way buildings provide fresh air.
With an increasing focus on clean air, driven by the pandemic and efforts to return to offices, schools, and other public spaces, healthy air technologies have never been more in demand. As the first investment of our new fund, Oxygen8 Solutions, a manufacturer of high-efficiency HVAC and Energy Recovery Ventilation Systems, recently raised over $4 million in Series Seed financing.
Changing the way buildings provide air, Oxygen8 has redesigned both the installation approach and heating and cooling technology to create an offering that benefits building occupants as well as building owners, architects, and engineers, and has installed more than two dozen of its flagship Nova ventilation systems, providing fresh, filtered air in buildings across the United States and Canada.
Find out more here.
Success Stories: Fund I
Kicking off Fall 2021 with a Bang: Goby Acquired
The Goby platform empowers real estate owners and managers to evaluate each element of their ESG impact and provides transparency through a full spectrum of corporate social responsibility reporting capabilities.
Greensoil portfolio company, Goby, proved an attractive acquisition target for Utah-based Conservice, North America's largest utility management service. Having worked collaboratively with Goby for a number of years, we are excited about their success.
As early leaders in PropTech, Goby's users save time, mitigate risks and realize increased returns on their real estate investments, with the company's powerful software, which provides invoice automation, digitized workflows and analytics regarding a building's utility usage. Conservice was quick to recognize the important synergies that will allow them to offer a more comprehensive ESG solution as part of their new sustainability solutions.
Read more here.
Leveraging a Strong Valuation: Procore’s IPO and Greensoil’s Exit
Procore helps construction professionals increase their project success by simplifying project management with powerful collaborative software.
PropTech has been transforming construction, an industry that is finally reaping the benefits of cutting-edge management tools, and resulting in some recent large exits.
Following the exciting news of Procore (NYSE: PCOR) going public in May at a market capitalization in excess of US $9 billion, the company’s stock traded up at its peak to 60% above its IPO price. At the end of August, we completed the sale of 40% of our stake upon the release of those shares from the underwriters’ lockup. We are extremely happy to be sharing these results. In 2017, we made a US $2.5 million investment in Honest Buildings, which Procore acquired in the summer of 2019. This public market disposition has allowed us to return distributions to date at a severalfold multiple of our cost base to our Fund I LPs.
With over one million projects and more than US $1 trillion in construction projects managed via Procore, the platform has demonstrated impressive growth and has become the leader in construction management software. Read more here.
Working with our Partners to Help Them Grow
Electriq Power is an energy storage company developing ubiquitous hardware and software solutions for the clean energy transition.
Looking to accelerate continued growth, Electriq Power, a leading provider of intelligent and integrated home energy storage, management and monitoring solutions, recently raised over US $10 million in incremental funding. Led by a co-investment vehicle managed by GSPV, the financing will provide support for the company’s rapid expansion and market penetration. The main capital provider in the co-investment vehicle is the indirect investment business of Grosvenor Group (Grosvenor), the privately owned international property company and a large LP in Fund I.
“The Electriq team has worked hard to position themselves as a leader in one of the most dynamic and impactful market segments in the energy transition. The response from our co-investors, particularly Grosvenor, is extremely validating and well deserved, and we are excited to continue supporting the company as it executes on an ambitious agenda to bring energy storage to homes across different geographies and demographics.”
Jamie James, Greensoil Managing Partner and Chair of Electriq’s board
Read more here
Commentary - PropTech Insight with Dave Harris Kolada
In this interview, GSPV Managing Partner, Dave Harris Kolada, provides insight into the PropTech sector, as well as addressing what VCs like Greensoil, are looking for when deciding where to invest.
Funding Portal: What drivers are helping the PropTech industry grow?
Greensoil: There are many drivers impacting the sector now, but the main ones are:
Increased returns
Increased returns are a huge driving force. Property owners need new ways of generating revenue and competitively differentiating themselves in an era of low interest rates and rapidly rising asset values.
Downside risk
Property owners are also looking for ways to protect their downside risks regarding such issues as climate change and climate resilience (fires, floods, air quality etc.). Mitigating risings costs such as insurance and fines/penalties for lack of compliance with a growing number of energy intensity/emissions regulations is also a strong driver.
Net zero
In response to climate change, property and asset owners managing trillions of dollars have committed to bringing their buildings to net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and 2050 – this is only possible with PropTech. At GSPV, we say “The road to 2050 runs through PropTech.”
Going digital & COVID-19
The real estate sector, like all sectors of the global economy, is undergoing a digital transformation. While real estate has lagged the enterprise sector, it has reached its tipping point. COVID-19 has been a huge catalyst for real estate to go digital as traditional (analog) processes no longer worked. There is a need to operate with skill and precision from anywhere at anytime. This is only possible through digitization.
Demographics
Millennials and younger generations demand more – particularly around the environment – from their vendors, including their landlords, and those that build and service the properties they own. They are voting with their dollars. In addition, they are moving into increasingly higher levels of responsibility within often family run real estate companies. They are driving change, both in terms of innovation generally, and with respect to carbon reducing technologies specifically.
They are also mobile first and will adopt the solution that is easiest to use, that is seamlessly integrated with other apps they use and with a UI/UX that delights them. All these trends are forcing the real estate industry to adopt more PropTech.
Read more here.
Keep Reading
Searching For the American Dream? Go To Canada
Globe and Mail
Leaders in Shipping, Aviation, and Heavy Industry Chart a Path to Net Zero Ahead of COP26
Canary Media
The Great Supply Chain Disruption (Podcast)
New York Times
Reimagine CO2 - 4 min Video on CarbonCure's Mission to Decarbonize Concrete
Pique Action
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