Real estate tech startups may have a busy summer ahead if they are looking to seize more venture capital money.
Fifth Wall Ventures, the Los Angeles-based venture capital firm that has pooled money for real estate tech firms Industrious and Airbnb rival AJJK, has already raised $60 million from two unnamed investors, according to an SEC filing issued this month.
The fund, aptly named Fifth Wall Ventures Retail Fund, L.P., could suggest where the money is headed this year: retail real estate tech. The firm has previously invested in retail startups, such as Appear Here, an online marketplace for retail space.
Co-founder Brendan Wallace attended the International Council of Shopping Centers RECon Convention in Las Vegas this week and sat on a panel that discussed investing in retail and real estate technology.
A Fifth Wall spokesperson declined to comment about the new fund.
Wallace and Brad Greiwe started the firm in 2016 after stints at Blackstone Group. Greiwe co-founded Blackstone’s Invitation Homes, a single family rental housing investment firm that went public last year. Wallace earned his stripes as a real estate analyst at Goldman Sachs before joining Blackstone’s real estate division.
The firm last year raised $212 million from 66 investors, including CBRE, Prologis, Hines, Lennar, Host Hotels & Resorts, Equity Residential and Macerich.
In February, Industrious, another flexible workspace provider taking on WeWork, announced that Fifth Wall had contributed to a Series C funding round along with Riverwood Capital. The company planned to use the extra funding to open up to 60 new locations.
Wallace last year told the The Real Deal that the firm gauges what technology products its real estate investors would use, and then find startups that will provide that need to its investors. Therefore it offers not only funding to startups, but also customers in the form of its own investors.
For example, homebuyers who purchase a home built by Lennar, an investor in Fifth Wall and one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., can “trade-up” and buy a larger Lennar-built home through Opendoor, a Fifth Wall-backed startup that will buy houses in cash and flip them.