This week in PropTech - 5.29.20
An interesting IPO, perhaps
I thought it was going to be a quiet week.
Looking back at the deals I reviewed, funds I spoke to, and investments I checked in with, all seemed low key.
Until yesterday.
Bloomberg reported that Industrious is considering an IPO. (Link below)
Now, to me, this is entirely unsurprising. And it probably should be unsurprising to anyone who closely follows the coworking industry. If you raise $220M from VCs, you are likely to go public or get acquired soon.
The long-time knock on WeWork has always been that they have long term liabilities (i.e. leases with office landlords) and their model was predicated on the idea of being able to arbitrage with subleases to smaller firms.
Time will tell whether that is a profitable approach or not, but Industrious took a different approach.
Jamie and team decided they would simply manage coworking spaces for existing landlords.
That’s interesting because they became simply a specialist management firm. And now a specialist management firm is considering going public.
This is interesting to me for several reasons.
First, like WeWork, Industrious is not a tech company. They are a management company. That could be good or bad depending on what the public equities market is hungry for next Spring. I can tell you from personal experience that Industrious isn’t even a particularly tech-forward manager. I tried to suggest touchless-access to them a couple years ago and was ignored. It’s also personally interesting to me because I have been cautious about investing in services companies for fear of their long-term margins and exit abilities. If this goes well, I need to examine my assumptions . . .
Second, if they do go public, this will be a huge shot in the arm for PropTech after the WeWork drama. Again, I will repeat that there is basically no “tech” within the Industrious model that can’t easily be copied by any office manager. So they don’t even really qualify as PropTECH. Still, the public markets won’t care or understand the difference and their win or loss will be attributed to our industry. Funds like Fifth Wall and Brookfield will get to celebrate this win with their LPs (deservedly so) and as their profile improves, so does the industry’s.
(Side note - I’m super interested to see how they handle their marketing and messaging around “how we are different than WeWork” which you know will be the thrust of everything they publish.)
So, here is hoping that it happens and it gos well.
I’m cheering for you, Jamie!
On to this week’s deals and data -
Fundings:
SmartRent, a Phoenix-based smart apartment platform, raised $60M led by Spark Capital after raising $32M last year.
Fernish, an LA-based furniture rental platform focused on apartments, raised $15M led by Khosla Ventures.
MakeSpace, and on-demand self-storage platform based in NY, raised a $55M Series E led by Iron Mountain.
Shopic, a checkout free system for grocers, raised $7M led by IBI Tech Fund.
Funds:
Paid members only.
Other News:
Industrious, a coworking semi-competitor to WeWork, is thinking about an IPO.
The NAR announced its 2020 cohort of companies.
The RealDeal interviews Dror Poleg and Antony Slumbers on the Future of Office.
The CDC sent out new guidelines this week for how they recommend reopening office spaces. Axios has some comments and summary.
Reading:
CBInsights has a great intro to some new retail technology.
MIT Tech Review has a nice article about how the lockdown is changing shopping forever.
Commercial Observer has an interesting read about how PropTech can enable contact tracing and social distancing.
Khushbu wrote an article about the four major challenges facing multifamily and how technology is addressing them.
You should read everything NfX publishes, but make sure you read their latest post on Labor Markets as we all contemplate what a return to work will look like.
Steve LeVine has an interesting read on how the economy just got blasted into the future.
CPE published an article about Tech for the post-COVID office.
Forbes interviewed a group of PropTech VCs about what happens to the sector next.
Watch:
Check out Bloomberg Beta’s panel discussion on the Future of Work.
Here is this year’s German PropTech Innovation Summit.
The Smart Office, according to Sharp.
Finally, I know it’s not PropTech, but I found this analysis of Millennials and their living/marriage trends to be fascinating.
Thanks for reading!
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If you have any financings, articles, or suggestions for me, please send them to MKnight@blkhwk.com.