Pi Labs hits 50+ portfolio companies

Proptech VC, Pi Labs, has announced its eighth pre-seed growth programme comprising five start-ups who will benefit from a tailored 15-week intensive programme.

The latest cohort has helped Pi Labs reach a significant milestone of more than 50 portfolio companies.

Through the accelerator, which has been running since 2015, start-ups receive investment from Pi Labs, in addition to mentoring from sector experts and strategic advice to prepare the company for scale.

This year’s programme is the first to be run remotely.

As part of the programme, Pi Labs provides each company with seed funding in addition to follow-on funding. However, the programme goes further than just funding; the core of the programme is centred on strategic mentorship, community collaboration and the opportunity to network with the wider property and proptech community, Pi Labs’ alumni, and investors during the four months. It is this connectivity into Pi Labs’ ecosystem which start-ups find the most valuable.

This year’s cohort is Pi Labs’ most geographically diverse group to date, in line with the company’s ambition to broaden and deepen its footprint across Europe. The group includes start-up teams from UK, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and France as well as the accelerator’s youngest founder to date, at the age of 21.

As the PropTech market continues to evolve, Pi Labs, with its in-depth knowledge and understanding of the real estate market, is well placed to advise companies on navigating the sector. Future trends shaping the market, ranging from construction tech, robotics, 3D visualisation, and methods to streamline asset management – all areas that are represented in this year’s cohort.

The programme will run for 15 weeks, from March to June, when the cohort will have an opportunity to present their products to an audience of investors, journalists and the property industry during a live demo day curated by Pi Labs. Notable alumni from Pi Labs’ previous programmes include some of Europe’s top performing PropTech startups including Houst (previously AirSorted), LandTech and Office App.

Faisal Butt, CEO and Founder of Pi Labs, said: “The calibre and volume of applications we receive exceeds our expectations every year and this year was no different. What we love with our current cohort is the focus on delivering efficiencies and savings through the appropriate application of technology; platforms and systems that meet a real need in the real estate industry. There is a  clear focus on design automation, 3d visualisation, robotics, asset management and construction tech which we see as growth segments within PropTech. We’re also delighted to welcome international teams to the programme mirroring our own ambitions to grow our footprint geographically.

“This latest cohort marks a significant milestone for Pi Labs as it takes our portfolio to more than 50, which is a great achievement for our team. We look forward to the next three months which will be incredibly exciting as we see and experience our cohort develop and join our alumni network of more than 100 founders and mentors. We are on track to make 10 new investments in 2020, in addition to follow-ons in existing companies.”

This year’s group of start-ups spans a broad range of trends and sectors with a core focus on technology solutions for real estate developers and asset managers.

The new start-ups include:

Structor.io: a collaborative platform to enable project controls for asset owners, developers and main contractors. Instead of using emails, spreadsheets or multiple single-use solutions, Structor.io integrates commercial management workflows – payments, changes, risks – into intuitive real-time dashboards. The platform reduces manual and wasted efforts and improves decisions.

REST Solution: a centralised platform for investment and asset managers that enables them to draw accurate and real time asset level data, regardless of the source.  The platform will also enable asset managers to forecast and test different cash flow scenarios based on different leasing proposals.

Hausbots: introducing the wall climbing robot which uses proprietary technology to stick to any exterior wall and can paint to the same standard as a professional painter.

Bright Spaces: Bright Spaces is the digital showcase for commercial real estate. Their tool allows landlords to better showcase their spaces and optimise off-plan leases using digitisation of all the information regarding the building and the available spaces as well as web-based 3D visualisation for floor plans and exterior amenities.

Propster: a digital collaboration platform that optimises the handling of real estate developments by focusing on consumer needs. The platform guides developers and their consumers as buyers, tenants and investors through the product and service configuration, connects all relevant project participants and provides seamless documentation throughout the entire development cycle.

Pi Labs recently announced a strategic investment of £2.5m from leading pan-European real estate fund manager, Revcap, to support Pi Labs’ expansion internationally, to grow its multidisciplinary team of real estate, finance, and technology professionals, and to invest into its platform.

The investment followed closely on the first close of Fund 3, which is projected to invest into 50 proptech companies over five years, almost doubling Pi Labs’ portfolio to 100. Investment from the fund will range from £250,000 – £1 million per deal, plus a follow-on capital capability.  Pi Labs is looking to add a further 6-10 professional investors into the fund, targeting institutional investors from across the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.