Property Innovation Labs (Pi Labs), Europe’s first property tech venture capital firm, has raised $10 million. This new fund, combined with capital from its strategic co-investors, gives London-based Pi Labs $20m of investment firepower making it the largest property tech focused VC fund in Europe and Asia.
The new fund will target financing rounds of between $70,000 and $4m in early-stage pre-series A companies and will invest in tech businesses operating across the full supply chain for real estate, real estate finance and construction asset classes.
Pi Labs is creating a globally diversified portfolio and will be opening international offices over the next 18 months to invest further in global property tech opportunities.
The second fund has invested in 14 property tech companies so far, primarily in seed and pre-seed rounds. It recently co-led a £1m seed investment in Brolly, the UK’s first artificial intelligence insurance advisory application, as well as following on in a £1.5m seed extension round for Airsorted, a leading global Airbnb management service, and a £2.5m investment round for Plentific, a platform connecting homeowners to tradespeople.
Pi Labs is looking to complete around 35 total investments from its new fund, and will close roughly 10-15 deals over the next 12 months. The highly experienced management team will also look to follow on and invest in multiple rounds to further support its portfolio companies as they scale and grow. Although its pre-seed investment programme remains a cornerstone of Pi Labs’ strategy, it also focuses on the full seed investment spectrum as a VC and expects the majority of the new fund’s capital to be deployed in this sector.
Investors in the second fund, which is fully discretionary with committed capital, include Round Hill Venture Partners LLC and partners from Prestbury Investments LLP. There are 26 investors, the majority of which are institutional or family office investors across the UK, Europe, US, Canada and the Middle East. This strong LP base will also seek to provide significant co-investment capital for later rounds.
Pi Labs’ second fund builds on the success of the first, which was fully deployed in 2016. The new fund is roughly 12.5 times the size of its predecessor, which has so far delivered a strong performance for investors.
Pi Labs was founded in 2014 by entrepreneur and investor Faisal Butt alongside co-founders Dominic Wilson and Mary Criebardis Singh. The partners have between them over 35 years of combined experience in real estate across multiple asset classes in Europe and beyond, and have managed over $5bn of combined investments at firms such as AEW Capital Management and Colliers International.
Dominic Wilson, co-founder and Managing Partner of Pi Labs, said, “This is a significant milestone for Pi Labs. We’ve attracted a large number of well-known and influential investors to the second fund and our portfolio companies will be able to benefit from a huge wealth of experience and a true global reach. In the last 36 months, we have progressed from an accelerator focused fund to a VC that proactively invests across the seed spectrum, which has placed us at the very centre of the property innovation ecosystem. We have already invested in a number of exceptional opportunities with this new fund and see plenty more to do over the next 24 months. We are proud to have quickly become a significant growth engine for the nascent property tech industry.”
Nick Leslau, Chairman of Prestbury Investments LLP and lead investor in the new fund, said, “Technology will significantly impact the real estate market. We see significant opportunities to improve efficiencies across many parts of the industry and the Pi Labs management team is extremely well-positioned to identify the companies likely to succeed in those areas. The Pi Labs team’s success to date shows that they have a keen sense for both picking winners and then supporting them as they scale quickly. I am really pleased to be working with and supporting such a smart, motivated and talented team.”