Hardcore
Procore, the construction management platform, acquired Levelset for $500 million. It is the firm’s largest acquisition to-date and among the largest ever for a venture-backed construction software company.
Analysts said the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, will sharpen Procore’s competitive advantage and help it corner business from specialty contractors — a nut no one has so far cracked.
The acquisition also hints at the company’s move into other areas of construction management, like contractor insurance, payment facilitation and contractor financing, analysts said.
In the coming quarters, Procore plans to diversify revenue to sources outside North America and expand its user base beyond the general contractors that originally were its bread and butter, Wyatt Jenkins, Procore’s senior vice president of product, said.
Permanent Vacation
Pacaso, the San Francisco-based platform for buying and selling fractions of vacation homes, raised $125 million in a Series C round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, achieving a $1.5 billion valuation less than a year after launching.
Demand for second homes in high-end vacation markets exploded during the pandemic, even as home values spiked, Pacaso’s leadership said. The company is looking to expand internationally, first in Europe, then in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Through the Pacaso platform, prospective owners can buy as little as a one-eighth share of a multi-million-dollar property. As of mid-September, Pacaso managed $200 million of real estate and had an annualized revenue run rate of $330 million.
The company continues to face opposition from locals who say it is a glorified timeshare that is violating local zoning laws.
Constructive
Nashville-based Built, a fintech startup in construction lending, raised $125 million in additional funding, more than tripling its valuation to $1.5 billion.
Built plans to use the money to expand into other construction sectors like supplies, labor, insurance, equipment and materials.
The company currently operates only in the U.S. and Canada but may look to expand into Australia and the U.K. as early as next year.
STAT OF THE MONTH
20 Proptech IPOs
And SPAC mergers over last year
Electricityscape
New York City will get its first indoor fast-charging electric vehicle hub this fall, courtesy of Gravity, an EV taxi service and infrastructure startup.
The street-level site at Related’s Manhattan Plaza in Midtown, which will be open to the public, is the first of many partnerships to come with major landlords, Gravity CEO Moshe Cohen said.
In the coming months, Gravity will ink individual leases or licensing agreements for locations around Manhattan and denser areas of Brooklyn, as well as a handful of portfolio-level deals. There ultimately could be as many as 100 sites in the city capable of charging EVs in minutes.
The advent of fast-charging stations represents a “deep rethinking” of urban space and how it shapes behavior, Cohen said. “What does a parking garage actually look like when you remove fumes?”
Your blockquote here…
Class of 2021
MetaProp, the proptech venture capital firm, introduced the roster for its 22-week accelerator course at Columbia University.
The firm actively invests in the handful of emerging real estate technology companies that make the cut for the program, now in its sixth iteration.
The class of 2021 includes 9 startups, including Peat, an urban composting network — MetaProp’s first such investment. Others include Stay Open, a startup repurposing retail and office space into hotels, and Skillit, a construction labor marketplace.
Over the years the program has accelerated more than 30 companies and witnessed four successful exits.
Small bytes
• Ribbon, one of a few startups enabling homebuyers to make cash offers, raised $150 million in Series C funding, with plans to expand to Midwest and West Coast markets.
• Versatile, an AI-driven construction-tech platform for analyzing jobsite performance and streamlining decision-making, raised $80 million in a Series B round.
• Measurabl, an ESG platform, raised $50 million in a Series C round from investors that included some of the largest real estate companies, including Starwood Capital Group.
• Willow, a digital twin platform, raised about $43 million in a bridging round, and will use the funds to scale its software globally.
• Qira, a new rental financing and management platform formed out of a merger between Rentigo and HelloRented, raised $8 million in a Series A round.
• Locatee, a workplace analytics company, raised $8.4 million in a Series B round.
• DoorLoop, another rental management startup, raised $10 million in seed funding.
• The digital title company Expetitle, which enables remote real estate closings, raised $2.3 million in a seed round.
• Aren, a civil infrastructure management platform, raised $2 million in seed funding.
• REDIST, a startup looking to demystify real estate tax breaks, raised $1.9 million in a seed round.
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