Pi Labs, Axeleo among Bright Spaces backers

The end-to-end digital leasing platform has raised €1.5m from lead investor Axeleo Capital together with Pi Labs, Sparking Capital, Growceanu and strategic angel investors.

Bright Spaces’ solution allows future tenants to visualise and interact digitally with an office space in 3D, discover its main tech specs, surroundings, main points of interest as well as to request an offer or book a live tour.

Landlords benefit from an integrated, easy-to-use admin panel that provides data on closed deals, vacancy, potential customers and their specific requirements such as desired parking spaces or storage needs and can generate a personalised heads of terms directly from the platform.

Some of the startup’s first clients are Skanska in central and eastern Europe, One United Properties, Impact Hub, and Moorland Property Solutions in the UK.

Bogdan Nicoara, co-founder and CEO of Bright Spaces, said: “We are witnessing an accelerated digitisation of the commercial real estate industry and an increased interest for tech solutions that facilitate digital leasing and visualisation of spaces. The solutions we are building will transform the way landlords do business from now on and we are grateful to all our partners, clients, and mentors who trust us and help us grow.”

The funding will support the growth of the company, the development of new tech features and its expansion to new markets in Central and Western Europe.

Mathias Flattin, partner and fund manager of Axeleo Proptech 1, said: “Bright Spaces brilliantly integrates existing workflow of real estate players to accelerate commercialisation and optimise management of tenants without disrupting the organisation. The platform also helps asset managers get more control on their data to easily value them later, which answers a real market need. This awareness of industry practice has already paid with powerful players adopting the solution both in eastern and western Europe.”

The company is also a Pi Labs Accelerator Alumnus, having been selected to join the renowned proptech programme in 2020 out of 600 applications.

Faisal Butt, founder and CEO of Pi Labs, commented: “Prior to the pandemic, we were already looking into visualisation platforms off the back of our research findings that these will emerge as essential tools both in the short and long term, as tenant and buyer behaviour shifts to carry out part of the viewing and pre-leasing process virtually when searching for suitable space. This is why we backed Bright Spaces, from day zero of their startup life cycle, prior to the pandemic, identifying that their 3D interactive visualisation platform has potential to become a leading global solution that transforms office leasing. We were impressed with the founders, Bogdan and Andrei, when they went through our accelerator programme last year, and look forward to being a part of their journey as they reshape how developers, landlords, agents and tenants showcase and lease their properties in the post-Covid world.”

Since its launch in 2019, Bright Spaces has raised a pre-seed round from local investors and has launched several tailored digital leasing platforms that streamline leasing processes for their clients in Romania and the UK.

As a consequence of the company’s sustainable growth, after their initial investment, Sparking Capital and Growceanu decided to do a follow-on and join the new round for Bright Spaces.

Cristian Negrutiu, founding partner at Sparking Capital, added: “The progress achieved by Bright Spaces is remarkable and we are happy to contribute again to the development of the company, after the first funding round, led by Sparking back in 2019. This transaction is a sign of maturity not only for Sparking Capital portfolio, but for the entire Romanian ecosystem.”

Ciprian Man, co-founder, Growceanu Angel Investment, added: “This highly experienced and driven team addressed a real-world problem and validated it in a large market, right from the start. We’re delighted with their execution and eager to support them further.”

Among the angels who decided to invest, while offering mentorship and industry knowledge as well, there are: Alexandru Boghiu (Mavers Wealth Management), Marian Dinu (DLA Piper Dinu), Barrie Heptonstall (a former IBM executive and angel with 60 investments), Elena Vladescu (Financial Advisor).