PropTech1 Ventures wins further launch partners, including Commerz Real, for its second fund for startup investments in transformative real estate technologies
The independent venture capital platform for transformative real estate technologies PropTech1 ("PT1") has attracted further anchor investors as well as venture partners following the announcement of the start of fundraising for its Fund II. The first closing and thus the planned operational launch of the fund with a target volume of 100 million euros is scheduled for early 2023.
The Fund II launch partners are joined by another prominent anchor investor, Commerz Real. The real assets subsidiary of Commerzbank is one of the most renowned German asset managers for real assets, with approximately 34 billion euros in assets under management. "We were convinced on the one hand by the diversified
access to innovative technologies in the real estate industry and on the other hand by the focus on sustainability," explains Henning Koch, Chairman of the Board of Commerz Real.
PT1 previously announced BRUNATA-METRONA Group, evoreal, JLL Spark Global Ventures, Liechtenstein Group, Otto Wulff, Scout 24 Group as well as Supernova Group as corporate launch partners who have made commitments and expressions of interest (some still soft commitments, subject to review steps or board
decisions).
Similar to Fund I, the by now 15-person strong operational team will also include several Venture Partners – typically former CXOs of the real estate industry and leading digital entrepreneurs – who will bring complementary, strategically important expertise and market access and also invest in Fund II. In addition to the Venture Partners, the fund has two panels, to advise on investment decisions (IC Panel) and to oversee governance (LPAC). The first confirmed Venture Partners and panel members are:
- Andreas von Blottnitz (U.S. business angel, Chairman of Appfolio);
- Jan Henric Buettner (former CEO of AOL Europe, founder of e.ventures/Headline);
- Klaus Freiberg (former COO of Vonovia, founder of 1648 Factory);
- Michael Lowak (former CEO of GETEC, Kofler Energies, MVV Energiedienstleistungen);
- Jakob Soravia (Sector7 Investors)
- Timo Tschammler (former CEO JLL Germany, Managing Partner TwainTowers)
- Sander van de Rijdt & Ibrahim Imam (co-founders of PlanRadar);
- Christian Vollmannn (CEO of CarbonOne);
- David Wortmann (CEO of DWR eco).
PT1 Fund II is expected to start operations after its first closing in early 2023, after Fund I has successfully completed its initial investment phase. PT1 will take on additional investors beyond the launch partners until the target size is reached.
Thematically, Fund II will also follow the approach of covering a "best-of" of the sub-sectors of real estate innovation, which are often classified in the market under the terms PropTech, ConstructionTech or UrbanTech, and will in particular address major market trends such as the sustainable transformation of the real estate industry, its interplay with energy and infrastructure issues as well as the burning question of climate resilience.
