Fifth Wall Raises $500 Million Fund to Invest in Tech for Real Estate Industry

0
Fifth Wall Raises $500 Million Fund to Invest in Tech for Real Estate Industry
Fifth Wall Ventures co-founders and managing partners Brendan Wallace and Brad Greiwe.

Fifth Wall Ventures — a Venice-based venture capital firm focused on connecting tech startups with large, established real estate players — has raised more than a half-billion dollars for a new fund, making the fledgling VC firm among the largest, most active players in Los Angeles.

Fifth Wall said in a filing with federal securities regulators today that the oversubscribed $503 million fund is its second real estate technology fund to close. The new fund attracted a total of 114 investors, according to the filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Obviously, we are a very large fund for L.A.,” said Brendan Wallace, co-founder and managing partner at Fifth Wall. “What makes us unique is our approach to raise capital because we partnered with the kingmakers for real estate and technology.”

According to data from Pitchbook Data Inc., provided by Fifth Wall, the new fund makes Fifth Wall the largest active VC firm in Los Angeles.

Given all of the money raised to date – including $73 million in special purpose vehicles, or SPVs, $212 million in its first fund, and a third “undisclosed” fund that raised more than $200 million to invest in consumer brands and emerging retail technologies – Fifth Wall has more than $1 billion in assets under management.

Fifth Wall’s first fund was raised from nine strategic real estate investors in the United States. In comparison, the second fund attracted global investor interest from more than 50 corporate strategic investors from 11 countries.

“With that much money, they won’t be making less than $20 million investments each,” said Len Lanzi, executive director of the Los Angeles Venture Association, who estimates there are roughly 200 venture firms in Los Angeles County.

“It can’t be limited to L.A. because of its size. It’s too big. There are not enough startups in L.A. to invest that kind of money in,” Lanzi said.

Fifth Wall has made several high-profile investments since its founding in 2016. It has funded Neutron Holdings Inc.’s Lime scooter, provider of one of the electric vehicles that have become almost ubiquitous in Los Angeles. Other investments include San Francisco-based Opendoor Labs Inc., a technology-powered real estate company; Hippo, a Mountain View-based tech enabled home insurance startup; VTS Inc., a New York-based leasing and asset management platform; and Industrious, a New York-based co-working startup.

Finance reporter Pat Maio can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8329. Follow him on Twitter @patmaio.

No posts to display