Greensoil’s New $100M Sustainability-Focused PropTech Fund Posts Initial Close
Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Starlight Investments are anchor investors.
Greensoil PropTech Ventures has closed about half of a $100 million target for its latest fund, which it says will invest in technologies geared toward making the CRE industry more profitable and sustainable.
The Greensoil PropTech Ventures Fund II LP will invest entirely in proptech— including cloud, machine learning, and SaaS business models—and will leverage the firm’s industry relationships and limited partners to find and invest in tech it calls “compelling to customers in the real estate sectors.” In a statement, David Harris Kolada, managing partner of Greensoil PropTech Ventures, said the fund “will be financing opportunities resulting from the digital disruption of the entire real estate value chain.” It will focus on high-growth tech companies with accretive business cases for property owners and strong sustainability platforms.
The closing is anchored by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers, as well as an affiliate of North American multifamily and Canadian CRE company Starlight Investments, which has $20 billion of assets under management.
Greensoil noted in a prepared statement announcing the deal that often, prospective portfolio company solutions are piloted with one of Greensoil’s limited partners before an investment is made.
Greensoil is one of the earliest VC adopters to focus entirely on CRE technology, or proptech, which has since become one of the fastest growing VC segments. The firm estimates that close to $25 billion in venture capital financing flowed to proptech companies in 2020.
Confidence in the proptech sector surged early in 2021, after an early pandemic lull, and capital investors and startups are reporting renewed confidence in the market. The pandemic accelerated tech adoption early in the pandemic, of course, but these numbers are also likely the result of several high-profile tech deals, including Airbnb’s IPO, SPAC deals for Porch and Opendoor, and the debut of a myriad of proptech-focused SPACs.
Experts predict increased M&A and SPAC activity in the sector throughout 2021, and investors are likely to be most intrigued by integrated proptech platforms.