BREAKING PROPERTY NEWS – 23/06/2022
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
Proptech fu3e. secures £3.5 million investment from Gresham House Ventures
Gresham House Ventures, a growth equity investor specialising in software and digitally-driven businesses in the consumer, healthcare, and service sectors, has made a £3.5mn investment in fu3e., an adaptive management reporting software platform for the real estate sector.
The fu3e. platform combines two leading digital products aimed at managing development risks and digitising management processes and is designed to sit above and integrate with existing management reporting software solutions.
The platform is designed for real estate funds, assets owners, developers and professional consultants providing users with real-time data enabling them to operate with insight, manage risk effectively and make informed decisions quickly and at scale.
Gresham House Ventures’ investment will be used to accelerate product development and sales and marketing growth, as the real estate sector sees increasing adoption of software solutions.
For those who may not be aware, fu3e. is an adaptive management reporting software designed by real estate and property executives. fu3e. is the umbrella above existing management software, used by real estate funds, asset owners, developers, and professional consultants.
fu3e. was created by F3GROUP, the UK’s leading boutique real estate development, risk, and capital management consultancy. With a 40-year track record in property and real estate development management ownership, fu3e. was built by executives, for executives, to combat the challenges created by siloed systems and manual reporting.
There are two products, Business Impacts – to manage development risks and Digital PMO – to digitise management process; each one delivers management reporting and processing with incredible efficiency.
Gavin Gleave, CEO of fu3e., comments:
“We are excited to have secured this investment from one of the UK’s leading growth capital investors in the enterprise software space. Gresham House Ventures’ funding and experience in this area will be a major boost and will enable fu3e. to further expand its market share and build awareness in the wider real estate industry, as the sector’s adoption of software-based solutions continues to accelerate.”
James Hendry, Associate Director at Gresham House Ventures, comments:
“fu3e. has delivered impressive growth to date and we believe the business is well-positioned to emerge as a market leader, as the real estate sector increasingly embraces the potential of software to improve existing processes. The platform already has a strong customer base, and our investment will support further product development and sales and marketing growth at this critical time for fu3e.
“We were immediately impressed by the fu3e. platform which has clearly benefited from the management team’s background in the industry to address a significant issue which they had experienced first-hand.
“We believe the quality of the management team at fu3e. combined with our software scaling expertise will make this a highly effective partnership, and we look forward to working closely with the business over the coming years as it continues its positive trajectory.”
Gresham House Ventures specialises in scaling businesses with business models driven by technology, customer insight or service excellence. Gresham House Ventures aims to work with ambitious management teams who want the support of a flexible long-term investor who brings capital, insight, and expertise.
Demand Logic secures funding and appoints new Chair to roll out tech that cuts energy costs and carbon emissions by up to 30%
On Wednesday 22nd June 2022, Demand Logic successfully closed a pre-Series-A investment round led by Ashcombe and backed by Grosvenor and PiLabs. The funding also marks an important milestone in the transformation of the commercial property sector as it includes the first allocation by Grosvenor’s new Alternative Investment team, which has £65m to be deployed into European early-stage companies capable of accelerating the attainment of its ambitious environmental, social and commercial goals, alongside wider opportunities including areas such as renewable energy generation.
The funding will kick-start a new phase of growth for Demand Logic with a focus on strategic partnerships with leading players in the commercial real estate sector, helping them meet ambitious emission targets ahead of the UK’s goal to achieve net zero by 2050.
In its first post-investment move, the award-winning prop-tech firm has also announced the appointment of Gavin Starks as Chair of the Board. Gavin arrives with over 20 years entrepreneurial and C-Suite experience, including as founding CEO of the Open Data Institute, environmental intelligence company, AMEE, and net-zero data company, Icebreaker One.The injection of capital will help the company deploy its solutions to decarbonise buildings using its award-winning data-driven collaboration platform. Significantly, Grosvenor, who is already a customer and user of the platform, and is now also an investor, will be rolling out the technology further into their UK portfolio. The move indicates industry confidence in Demand Logic’s technology and capabilities which have already identified over £15m worth of energy savings for its customers. PiLabs, an original investor in the prop-tech business, have demonstrated their continued confidence following on in this latest round.
Mike Darby, Demand Logic’s CEO, said:
“This investment underlines the confidence that both the property industry and investors have in our technology as key to reducing the impact of buildings on climate change. Demand Logic is far and away the fastest route to net zero for property stakeholders. This funding, and the huge injection of domain expertise from our new Chair Gavin Starks, marks an upward change in gear for Demand Logic as we step up our intensity and determination to decarbonise the commercial real estate sector. We are now recruiting across all parts of the business, so please get in touch if you feel you have what it takes to help us.”
About his appointment, Gavin Starks said:
“Demand Logic has developed a proven, best-in-class solution for commercial property owners to radically reduce their energy bills and their emissions. Buildings account for ~40% of carbon emissions and improving their efficiency is an easy win for everyone. Given the combined pressures on energy costs, emissions reductions and creating measurable impact, this is the ideal moment to scale.”
Simon Bullivant at Ashcombe said:
“Since we first met Demand Logic we have been impressed by the huge potential the company has for transforming the built environment. We have seen that both the team and the technology have gained the trust of customers as bringing a market-leading solution to improving building performance and saving energy. We are delighted to lead on this important investment and look forward to helping the company achieve its goals.”
Andy Doyle, Innovation Director, Grosvenor Property UK commented:
“We are backing innovations that will help us answer changing business, occupier and customer needs in an era of climate change. As an investor in, and client to, high potential young businesses we can accelerate the commercial development of solutions critical to decarbonising the built environment’s impact whilst improving the range and quality of services we offer to our customers. “Demand Logic’s intelligent and simple software supports our goals of reducing carbon and cost of managing our buildings. Over our three year partnership their service levels, speed of deployment and insights as well as depth of analysis have been particularly impressive; and with the results we’ve experienced ourselves, we’re excited by the opportunity to support the business’ long-term growth.”
Faisal Butt, CEO & Founder of Pi Labs said:
“One of the obstacles hindering property owners and managers from improving the energy performance of their assets is actionable data, and we were confident that Demand Logic could be the missing piece of the puzzle when we first invested in them back in 2018. We are thrilled to see how far the team has come and I am excited that our follow-on investment in this round will see us continuing to support them in their growth journey.”
If you have a view – please let us all know by emailing me at editor@estateagentnetworking.co.uk – Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward.
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