£20.5M Funding For Planet Smart City

Planet Smart City has secured £20.5m funding. The London-headquartered provider of smart affordable housing secured the investment from existing and new investors, taking the total amount raised since the company’s inception to €100m. The PropTech improves quality of life for residents and fosters communities by providing superior infrastructure, urban planning, sustainability and technological solutions, supported by its Planet app.

I’ve been polluting the planet for years. I’m not an oil exec—I’m an architect

Proptech Startup RealVantage Launches Co-Investment Platform

RealVantage, Singapore’s first online real estate co-investment platform that acquires, manages, and optimises offshore real estate portfolios for accredited investors, founded by a team with institutional investment experience, launched on Jan 16. RealVantage brings accredited investors offshore investment opportunities across various real estate classes and investment strategies. By launching this co-investment platform, both accredited investors and high net worth individuals (HNWIs) wi…

Fifth Wall launches $200m carbon fund in ‘pitchfork moment’

That is Brendan Wallace’s reasoning behind the launch this week of Fifth Wall’s $200m (£153m) Carbon Impact Fund. Speaking to EG, Fifth Wall’s co-founder and managing partner warns that 2020 will be the year everyone realises that, above all else, climate change is “a real estate problem” as he urges the sector to prepare for a “pitchfork moment”. He adds that as the general public, financial markets and regulators become increasingly focused on climate change, real estate – as the single bigges…

Real estate enters the data age

Proptech is the big buzzword in real estate and for good reason: It’s disrupting just about every aspect of the industry and interest is at a fever pitch. Global investment in proptech companies has grown from US$1B in 2012 to US$18B in 2018, according to the latest numbers by Statista. So exactly what is proptech? It’s a broad term that includes everything from data, AI, machine learning, mobile apps and robots to flex office space and co-living residences. At the core of any proptech company, …

2020 vision: predictions for the year ahead (part 10)

I hope that 2020 is the year that our industry can get a handle on all the elements of ESG as more than buzzwords and actually embed them into business strategies. I still see too many organisations viewing sustainability and social impact as discretionary or ‘soft’ when actually, as shown by the terrible fires in Australia, tackling climate change and inequality is of critical importance to all of us. Investors are asking increasingly probing questions around ESG and I expect that will only inc…

Simon, Brookfield Partner With Allied Esports To Ramp Up Their Experiential Retail

Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners have struck separate deals with Allied Esports Entertainment, an esports company, as part of a plan to open new-concept Allied Esports venues at both Simon and Brookfield retail properties. The first of the new venues will open at Simon Property’s Mall of Georgia in Buford, Georgia, and will be a 13K SF, two-level facility with PCs and consoles for gamers, as well as broadcast and streaming production capabilities. The partners originally ann…

Co-Living Grows Up

New Yorkers have long shared apartments in order to afford the city’s famously high rents. This, of course, often entails hunting down an apartment with a real estate agent — and paying a broker’s fee, plus a hefty deposit — then furnishing the place, lining up roommates and getting electricity and internet service up and running.

Another women-led venture firm gains momentum, with Uber exec Rachel Holt as co-founder

Last November, Axios reported that New Enterprise Associates partner Dayna Grayson was leaving the storied venture firm after roughly six years to launch her own shop in Washington, D.C., called Construct Capital. Today, we know Grayson has company, no pun intended. Rachel Holt, one of Uber’s first employees and until now its head of new mobility, announced this morning that she’s joining Grayson as her co-founder. Outside of tweeting about their partnership, neither Grayson nor Holt are comment…

SA proptech Flow set to close new funding round at end of month, says CEO

Proptech startup Flow, which last year raised R20-million in a seed round, is set to close a second seed round at the end of this month, the Johannesburg based company’s CEO Gil Sperling revealed today. Sperling (pictured above, middle, with co-founders Daniel Levy, right and Jonathan Liebmann, left) confirmed in a call with Ventureburn today that Vunani Capital is participating in the round.