Greensoil PropTech Ventures has secured around $50 million USD in a first close, plus additional commitments, towards a targeted $100 million for its second fund.
The venture fund received backing from notable Canadian real estate organizations and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers, which served as anchor investor for Fund II.
LPs also included new and returning investors such as Starlight Investments, the country’s largest owner of rental units with $20 billion of assets under management. Tridel Group CEO Leo Del Zotto, ex-Kingsett Capital president Peter Aghar, Bayshore Capital chairman and CEO Henry Wolfond, and Osgoode Properties president Stephen Greenberg also invested, according to The Globe and Mail.
Greensoil was founded in 2015 and touts itself as one of the world’s first venture capital funds focused entirely on real estate technology.
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In addition to its notable real estate LPs, the firm is led by notable members of Canada’s real estate industry such as co-founder and chairman Alan Greenberg, who spent almost 30 years in senior leadership positions with the Minto Group of Companies; Jamie James, who formerly served as a lead sustainability advisor to Tridel; and Dave Harris Kolada, former manager of OpenText’s VC portfolio. Greensoil PropTech Ventures is one of two funds under the GreenSoil Investments umbrella, which also operates an agro and food tech fund.
Greensoil invests in early to mid-stage companies in North America, Europe and Israel. The firm is one of the most notable Canadian proptech investors alongside Alate Partners and Groundbreak Ventures, and now claims to have approximately $100 million USD under management across its two funds. Its portfolio includes CarbonCure, ThoughtWire, and US-based Honest Buildings, which was acquired in 2019 for $161 million, according to Crunchbase.
Proptech has been a growing segment for venture capital investment over the last decade, with global investments significantly increasing around 2018. While the property sector has undergone major transformations during COVID-19 and investment decreased by nearly 25 percent worldwide, reports point to massive opportunities in the space.