Camber Creek closes $155M fund

Texas ERS is an investor, signaling growing demand for proptech

Jake Fingert, Casey Berman and Jeff Berman (Camber Creek)
Jake Fingert, Casey Berman and Jeff Berman (Camber Creek)

Camber Creek — an early backer of proptech startups including VTS and WhyHotel — has raised $155 million from investors for its third and largest fund.

The venture capital firm said the fund was oversubscribed; it set out to raise $120 million last year. Institutional investors including the Texas Employees Retirement System invested in the fund, which is four times the size of Camber Creek’s first two funds combined.

Launched in 2011 by cousins Casey Berman and Jeffrey Berman, along with Jake Fingert, Camber Creek raised an initial $6 million fund, followed by a $31 million fund in 2017. The firm is based in Washington, D.C., with offices in New York and San Francisco.

To date, Camber Creek has invested in 25 startups, including smart lock startup Latch and VTS, a commercial leasing manager. In July, Camber Creek and Polaris Partners co-led a $35 million investment in Notarize, a digital notary startup.

In a statement, Fingert cited “incredible growth” in the real estate tech space, driven by changing fundamentals in the industry. The pandemic accelerated growing demand for digital solutions.

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Even before Covid struck, however, investors had been pouring money into proptech over the past few years. Proptech startups have raised $43 billion since 2012, according to Deloitte. Other estimates put the number at more than $63 million.

Fifth Wall, the L.A.-based VC firm launched by Blackstone Group alumni Brad Greiwe and Brendan Wallace, has more than $1 billion in assets under management. It closed a $503 million protech fund in July 2019 and has since closed a $100 million retail fund. It’s raising a $200 million carbon impact fund and recently disclosed a $118 million European proptech fund.

MetaProp is raising a $100 million fund and $200 million fund to back bigger startups. Navitas Capital disclosed a $100 million fund in January, and Moderne Ventures is raising an undisclosed amount for a new fund, filings show.