Welcome to Fall 2020: A different kind of Back to School & Office experience than we are used to.
The urgency and anticipation we all associate with this season has never been more essential. The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on our many dependencies on the Built Environment we occupy and the ability of these varied spaces to enhance or detract from our very well-being. We believe there will be lasting pressure on builders and operators of space to ensure and provide for the health and safety of their current and future occupants. These escalating societal, economic, regulatory, health and customer pressures can be satisfied by approaching the built environment as a system and harnessing technological innovation to leverage two powerful meta-trends that will unfold over the next 20 years. At Building Ventures we refer to these as “Constructuring” and “Space as a Service”. The past six months has seen the urgency of trends accelerate by years. Transforming construction into production is no longer a “when” question but a “how quickly” question as we previously wrote about in “Constructuring”. Now we turn your attention to the product itself. Complex products – which buildings most certainly are – come with a service layer. The customer experience is paramount to attracting and retaining customers. And yet historically CRE leaders were simply Asset owners. The Space as a Service trend asserts now they must be business operators, and, operating as a business, they have to obsess about customer needs. This will have profound implications on how space is designed, built and delivered. Travis explains in our latest post how we see technology addressing compounding pressures, increasing customer expectations and market demands for spaces that are not only useful but resilient, sustainable, productive and perhaps most importantly, safe and healthy.
We didn’t spend the entire summer on thinking and writing though. Read on to learn about our three most recent investments in Smartvid.io, Hypar, and Mosaic; the latest press and activities of the growing portfolio; and the BV Team’s involvement across the industry.
Investments
Our Investment in Mosaic
We are thrilled to participate in Mosaic’s Series A led by a16z. Founded by Salman and Sep, Mosaic is a full-stack construction technology company. Our belief in utilizing technology to industrialize the construction process to build better, more sustainable, more delightful buildings is made manifest in Mosaic’s technology, products and vision. Congrats to the Mosaic team! Read more
Our Continued Investment in Smartvid.io
This summer, Smartvid.io announced a groundbreaking partnership with AXA-XL aimed at reducing the cost of construction insurance and reducing safety incidents. We believe this is just the beginning of a major shift in construction risk underwriting. It is for this reason that we enthusiastically participated in the company’s most recent $5 million Series A2 led by IA Capital Group. Congratulations to Josh and the team! Read more about why we invested
Our Lead Investment in Hypar
We were thrilled to lead Hypar’s $1.48M Series Seed 2 in September with participation from Keough Ventures and Spatial Syndicate. Ian and Anthony’s vision is both simple and audacious: to disrupt and transform the Built Environment’s currently unscalable design consulting business model, and now the mission is well underway to deliver the world’s design expertise to realize better buildings. Congratulations Hypar! Read why we led the round
Portfolio Press
Dandelion was featured in The Economist’s article Green Machines as well as being selected by Fortune as one of the Impact 20.
enVerid’s white paper was cited by Propmodo in their piece on IAQ Finding Contamination Hot Spots.
Built Robotics was featured in National Geographic’s piece The Robot Revolution Has Arrived.
Read about how Envoy partnered with LACI to launch Electro Share. Affordable, solar-powered electric car share for the community of Pacoima.
Join Digital’s Travis Perkins was featured in CREtech’s Reimagining Real Estate – Creating Flexibility with Connectivity and Data for Re-occupancy.
Portfolio Musings
Dive into Blokable’s series on the housing market here.
Sign up for 75F and Nexus Lab’s webinar series on Healthier Buildings here.
Join.build breaks down the intricacies among The Supply Chain, VE and COVID-19.
ESG reporters can learn everything they need to know about 2020 changes to GRESB scoring here from Measurabl.
BV Activity & Press Highlights
Travis was interview by The Real Deal as part of their feature on Mosaic.
Jesse organized and moderated a panel on the Construction Labor Supply Shortage for the Urban Land Institute.
Allen participated on a panel at the AIA Large Firm Roundtable event “Forces Headed our Way to Disrupt the Traditional Delivery of Buildings”.
Heather participated in a panel for ICSC on the Future of Retail in the Built Environment Post-COVID 19.
