Fifth Wall (firm)
Company type | Limited Partnership |
---|---|
Industry | Venture Capital |
Founded | 2016 |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Key people | Brad Greiwe, Brendan Wallace |
Website | fifthwall |
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]
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]
References
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b "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.
- ^ a b c d Lee, Georgina (2018-08-27). "US proptech fund Fifth Wall attracts Hong Kong, Asian interest". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- ^ a b Putzier, Conrad (2018-08-01). "Who's holding the purse strings?". The Real Deal New York. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
- ^ a b "Fifth Wall raising another $200M for retail tech startups". The Real Deal New York. 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Loizos, Connie. "A new venture firm focused on real estate has raised $212 million from real estate industry giants". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Fifth Wall Ventures Raises $20M, Led by Identified's Founder". Wall Street Journal. 2016-09-30. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
- ^ Morris, Meghan (2018-09-11). "Fifth Wall: Meet the venture capitalists funding the future of real estate | PERE". PERE. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- ^ "Fifth Wall Ventures raises $212 million fund to invest in real estate | VentureBeat". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
- ^ Jeans, David (2018-06-21). "Fifth Wall launches $400M RE tech fund". The Real Deal New York. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- ^ "The Most Important Tech Trends Of 2018, According To Top VCs". Fast Company. 2018-01-02. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
- ^ Marinova, Polina (2018-07-25). "Why VC Firm Fifth Wall Ventures Is Bullish on the Tokenization of Real Estate". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- ^ Shieber, Jonathan. "Real estate venture firm Fifth Wall launches an early-stage accelerator". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-31.
- ^ "VC Firm Fifth Wall Ventures Launches Real Estate Tech Accelerator". Inman. Retrieved 2017-10-31.