A familiar name in New York City residential brokerage is launching a fund targeting proptech startups as the sector limps out of a drop in activity.
Era Ventures, founded by former brokerage executive Clelia Warburg Peters, is launching an $88 million fund for tech ventures in the real estate sector, the firm announced Wednesday.
The fund, backed by investors like ICG Advisors and BentallGreenOak, has already invested in seven companies, including digital handyman subscription service Honey Homes, U.K.-based listing service Ostrich and Homeward, a financial platform for real estate transactions.
“We are actually in the midst of one of the most significant shifts in and around the real estate industry than we have probably been through since the Industrial Revolution,” Peters said on a panel with The Real Deal in 2022, the year she founded Era Ventures.
“It’s on us in this room, whether we’re investors in that innovation or participants in the incumbent industry, to recognize that that’s happening.”
The announcement comes as few venture capital companies are rolling out significant dollars for startups. Last year, the number of firms making deals fell nearly 40 percent, according to an analysis from Pitchbook.
This year, venture capital funds are expected to raise $200 billion — down nearly 50 percent from the amount raised in 2021 when startup investment hit its peak. Venture capital investment will likely not return to those levels until 2028, Pitchbook analysts estimate.
Despite a decline in venture capital funds overall, news of Era Ventures’ fund joins that of another investor with real estate roots. Earlier this week, Chicago-based Moderne Ventures, led by Constance Freedman, announced its third fund totaling $230 million.
The company has a history of investing in real estate-related startups, though Freedman told Crain’s Chicago that it plans to focus on companies with “broader appeal.”
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Peters served as the president of Warburg Realty, working alongside her father, Frederick Warburg Peters, until the brokerage sold to Coldwell Banker in 2021. Peters left the brokerage after the sale to focus on the venture capital space full-time.
Peters previously co-founded a proptech accelerator called Metaprop in 2015, which three years later raised $40 million from investors including Cushman & Wakefield, RXR and CBRE. Peters also served as a venture partner with Bain Capital Ventures before founding Era Ventures in 2022. She also joined the board of white label firm Side in 2019.