Fifth Wall Ventures

Fifth Wall Ventures, founded in 2016, is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on real estate technology.[1][2][3] It is the largest fund specialized in real estate technology, also known as "prop tech."[4] Major financial backers include large real estate industry companies that agree to be matched with the products and services of the firm's portfolio of start-up companies.[5] The firm has a separate fund for investments in retail space technology.[6]

Fifth Wall Ventures
Limited Partnership
IndustryVenture Capital
Founded2016
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California, U.S.
Key people
Brad Greiwe, Brendan Wallace
Websitefifthwall.vc

History

The firm was founded by Brad Greiwe and Brendan Wallace, both from the real estate industry.[6] Greiwe co-founded single-family home rental company Invitation Homes, which went public in 2017 with a $6.7 billion valuation.[7] Wallace started his career as a real estate analyst at Goldman Sachs and worked for The Blackstone Group's real estate division.[8] He also founded Identified and co-founded Cabify.

Fifth Wall Ventures was formed in 2016 with capital commitments of more than $20 million.[9] Wallace said that the firm identified real estate technology as an underserved investment niche because while real estate represents about 13% of the U.S. economy, the industry has traditionally used very little technology and was therefore open to disruption.[10] The firm name refers to a fifth wall the firm says it provides in addition to the four physical walls of a building.[11] It is part of an emerging category of "PropTech" investors.[4]

A new $221 million fund was reported in May 2017.[2] About half of the firm's initial $240 million in funding came from large strategic real estate industry partners.[1] A second $400 million fund was reported in SEC filings in June 2018,[12][3] with Asian real-estate developers among the investors.[3] An additional $200 million fund called Fifth Wall Ventures Retail Fund L.P. was reported in SEC filings in May 2018, dedicated to retail real-estate tech.[5]

Wallace, the co-founder, identified energy efficient software, real estate as a service, real estate drones and operating systems with analytics for buildings as the most important real-state tech trends of 2018.[13] His partner, Greiwe, said "tokenization" of real-estate investing, through digital currencies, would "democratize" real-estate investing.[14]

Investments

The firm had invested in 27 companies as of August 2018.[3]

The firm expanded into early stage investing in July 2017 with an startup accelerator virtual program.[15][16]

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    References
    1. Sharf, Samantha. "New $212M Venture Fund Goes All In On Real Estate--Can An Innovative Model Force Change In A Dusty Industry?". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
    2. "The nation's biggest real estate companies are trusting two men in Venice to find them the next Airbnb or WeWork". Los Angeles Times. 28 April 2017. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
    3. Lee, Georgina (2018-08-27). "US proptech fund Fifth Wall attracts Hong Kong, Asian interest". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
    4. Putzier, Conrad (2018-08-01). "Who's holding the purse strings?". The Real Deal New York. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
    5. "Fifth Wall raising another $200M for retail tech startups". The Real Deal New York. 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
    6. Zakrzewski, Cat (2018-08-28). "'Retail Real Estate Isn't Dying,'\' Says Fifth Wall Ventures". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
    7. Loizos, Connie. "A new venture firm focused on real estate has raised $212 million from real estate industry giants". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
    8. "VC firm Fifth Wall raises $212M real estate tech fund from CBRE, EQR, others". The Real Deal New York. 2017-05-02. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
    9. "Fifth Wall Ventures Raises $20M, Led by Identified's Founder". Wall Street Journal. 2016-09-30. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
    10. Morris, Meghan (2018-09-11). "Fifth Wall: Meet the venture capitalists funding the future of real estate | PERE". PERE. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
    11. "Fifth Wall Ventures raises $212 million fund to invest in real estate | VentureBeat". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
    12. Jeans, David (2018-06-21). "Fifth Wall launches $400M RE tech fund". The Real Deal New York. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
    13. "The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs". Fast Company. 2018-01-02. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
    14. Marinova, Polina (2018-07-25). "Why VC Firm Fifth Wall Ventures Is Bullish on the Tokenization of Real Estate". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
    15. Shieber, Jonathan. "Real estate venture firm Fifth Wall launches an early-stage accelerator". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
    16. "VC Firm Fifth Wall Ventures Launches Real Estate Tech Accelerator". Inman. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
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