Clelia Warburg Peters, Era Ventures’ founder, is the first woman to raise an initial fund of this size in the real estate category. The fund will distribute capital across various stages of innovation.
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Proptech venture capital firm Era Ventures has launched its inaugural $88 million real estate fund, it announced on Wednesday.
The firm will distribute capital across various stages and a wide variety of industry innovations, from solutions that improve existing processes to those that completely reshape the real estate industry.
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Jeffrey Assaf | ICG Advisors
Era is actively looking to invest in seven core business models the firm believes are driving industry change, including (but not limited to) software as a service (SaaS) and artificial intelligence (AI), marketplaces, embedded fintech and hardtech ventures leveraging new technologies to optimize physical assets.
“We are proud to have invested in and to support Era Ventures in its mission to drive transformational change in the real estate sector,” Jeff Assaf, chief investment officer at ICG Advisors, said in a statement. “We’ve seen specialist venture funds consistently outperform in similarly complex sectors like financial services and healthcare, and Era’s approach positions it to drive fundamental disruption in a massive, yet technologically lagging, industry.”
The firm was founded in 2022 by real estate vet Clelia Warburg Peters, who is also daughter of Warburg Realty founder Frederick Warburg Peters. Thus far, Era Ventures has gained strong institutional investor support, including from ICG Advisors, New York Presbyterian Hospital, The Ashforth Company, BentallGreenOak (BGO), Continental General Insurance Company (CGIC), Pelwood Holdings, First American, Bain Capital Ventures, Fenwick & West LLP, and more.
Clelia Warburg Peters | Era Ventures
Peters has long been involved in proptech, having co-founded proptech fund MetaProp in 2015 and then served as a venture partner at Bain Capital Ventures for nearly two years. Peters is now the first woman to raise an initial fund of this amount in the real estate category. Additionally, Peters has served as an Inman Contributor and editor-at-large, and is a frequent moderator and speaker at Inman events.
“I’ve seen firsthand the need for a new approach to physical world innovation that combines the creativity and quality of the generalist investing approach with the sector knowledge and relationships brought by specialist funds,” Peters said in a statement. “Era Ventures is leveraging our unique blend of institutional backing, top-tier venture experience, and deep real estate expertise to bring both rigor and care to driving transformational change in the physical world.”
Raja Ghawi | Era Ventures
As construction activity continues to grow incrementally by about 1 percent each year, and since building consume about 30 percent of global energy, Era argues that innovation is urgently required.
“Era is not about playing it safe — we’re not just looking to digitize old processes in real estate and construction,” Raja Ghawi, partner at Era Ventures, said in a statement. “As innovation in our built world enters a new generation, we believe founders and startups will learn from. their predecessors’ mistakes, bringing more transformational, efficient and profitable businesses to market.”
The firm’s inaugural fund has already backed founders in the following areas:
Marketplaces and tech-enabled services
- Honey Homes, digital handyman subscription service provider
- Latii, cross-border construction-materials marketplace
- Welcome Homes, platform to manage and build custom homes online
- Ostrich, next-gen real estate listing service based in the UK
Fintech
- Shepherd, embedded insurance platform for the construction industry
- Truehold, single-family rental company that combines home sales and rental leases
- Homeward, embedded financial platform for residential real estate transactions
Hardtech
- PassiveLogic, AI-enabled platform for autonomous buildings
- ViaBot, Robotics-as-a-Service facility management platform
Vertical AI and SaaS
- Indigo, AI-powered platform to facilitate residential real estate transactions
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