Breaking Property News 26/09/24
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Managing Partner Clelia Warburg Peters raises multi-million first fund to digitally transform real estate sector
Era Ventures, a pioneering venture capital firm focused on investing in a broad range of business model innovations to catalyse positive change in the built world, today announced the launch of its inaugural $88/£65.5 million fund. It will will deploy capital across multiple stages and a full spectrum of sector-focused innovations, from enablement technologies that improve existing processes to truly disruptive platforms that reshape the industry.
The firm has identified seven core business models driving change, including but not limited to SaaS and AI, marketplaces, embedded fintech, and hardtech ventures leveraging new technologies to optimize physical assets, and will actively invest across all of these categories.
Founded by industry veteran Clelia Warburg Peters, (main picture) Era Ventures has already garnered support from a broad roster of leading institutional investors, including one of the country’s leading Ivy League Endowments, ICG Advisors, The Ashforth Company, BentallGreenOak (BGO), Continental General Insurance Company (CGIC), Pelwood Holdings, First American, Bain Capital Ventures, Fenwick & West LLP and others. It marks a notable achievement during a year when very few new venture funds of this size were raised.
“We are proud to have invested in and to support Era Ventures in its mission to drive transformational change in the real estate sector,” said Jeff Assaf, Chief Investment Officer at ICG Advisors, one of the leading multifamily offices in the country. “We’ve seen specialist venture funds consistently outperform in similarly complex sectors like financial services and healthcare, and Era’s approach positions it to drive fundamental disruption in a massive, yet technologically lagging, industry.”
Peters has been a leading investor in the PropTech space since its early days — first as a co-founder of MetaProp, one of the original, strategically backed PropTech funds, and then as a Venture Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, a leading generalist venture firm. She is an authority on innovation in the real estate category and is the first woman to raise an initial fund of this size in the category.
“I’ve seen firsthand the need for a new approach to physical world innovation that combines the creativity and quality of the generalist investing approach with the sector knowledge and relationships brought by specialist funds,” said Clelia Warburg Peters, founder and Managing Partner at Era Ventures. “Era Ventures is leveraging our unique blend of institutional backing, top-tier venture experience, and deep real estate expertise to bring both rigor and care to driving transformational change in the physical world.”
The fund’s launch comes at a critical juncture for the nearly $380 trillion global real estate industry, which has long resisted technological disruption. With productivity in construction rising just around 1% annually over recent decades and buildings consuming 30% of global energy, the need for innovation has never been more urgent.
“Era is not about playing it safe — we’re not just looking to digitize old processes in real estate and construction,” said Raja Ghawi, Partner at Era Ventures. “As innovation in our built world enters a new generation, we believe founders and startups will learn from their predecessors’ mistakes, bringing more transformational, efficient, and profitable businesses to market.”
Era Ventures is building a concentrated, high-conviction portfolio of transformative startups reimagining how we build, manage, and interact with our physical environment. Fund I has already backed founders across multiple stages:
Marketplaces and tech-enabled services: Honey Homes, a digital handyman subscription service provider. Latii, a cross-border construction-materials marketplace. Welcome Homes, a platform to manage and build custom homes online. Ostrich, a next-generation real estate listing service in the UK.
Fintech: Shepherd, an embedded insurance platform designed for the construction industry. Truehold, a single-family rental company that combines home sales and rental leases.Homeward, an embedded financial platform powering residential real estate transactions.
Hardtech: PassiveLogic, an AI-enabled platform for autonomous buildings. ViaBot, a Robotics-as-a-Service facility management platform.
Vertical AI and SaaS: Indigo, an AI-powered platform to facilitate residential real estate transactions.
“Clelia and Raja have a deep and considered viewpoint on what makes companies great. They use a qualitative and quantitative approach to understand their portfolio companies and apply that to provide helpful guidance and advice,” said Vishwas Prabhakara, the Founder and CEO of Honey Homes. “In particular, I’ve appreciated how they have helped Honey Homes better understand our target customers and informed our pricing strategy. Just as important, they have shown themselves to be a steady partner amidst the ups and downs of a startup journey.”
Era Ventures is a venture capital firm dedicated to transforming the physical world through collaboration with companies that have the potential to disrupt outdated business models and create new systems. Founded by industry veteran Clelia Warburg Peters with a rare combination of expertise across real estate, technology, and venture capital, Era backs visionary entrepreneurs reimagining how we build, manage, and experience physical environments. The firm invests across stages, from seed to growth, in startups poised to revolutionize the $380 trillion global real estate industry.
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X
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