With $2.28 Billion SPAC Deal to Take SmartRent Public, Fifth Wall Team Once Again Proves To Be in Their Own League

Al Goldstein, Executive Chairman and Founder of Pangea Properties and Avant (left) and Brendan Wallace (right), co-founder of Fifth Wall, share perspective on real estate tech at our 2017 Projects Conference in Los Angeles.

When we first interviewed Fifth Wall co-founder, Brendan Wallace after the launch of their first fund back in 2017 (Fifth Wall: Could this $212M real estate fund be the new norm?), Fifth Wall was the first independent venture fund focused on “Built World Tech” that we had identified that had broken the $100 million barrier. We thought others would soon follow. Flash forward four years, and, while some independent, focused funds have gotten close to Fifth Wall’s launch size, and others appear to be raising money now, nobody seems to keep pace with the team at Fifth Wall in terms of the scale of their activities. The latest news about the close of their $2.28 Billion SPAC merger with SmartRent appears to be just another illustration of how the speed and scope of Fifth Wall’s activities has outstripped other independent Built World-focused dedicated venture investment arms.

For more perspective on the players in the market, we offer several reports and lists. Recently, we published our BuiltWorlds Q1 2021 Venture Investment Activity Report. This recent deal between Fifth Wall and SmartRent did not make that report, but this deal dwarfs others on the list. Without this investment, it was still an active quarter for investment in the sector, and it helps illustrate how Fifth Wall’s scope goes beyond commercial real estate tech. As our report reflects, the team at Fifth Wall also participated in a significant round closed by Tennessee-based construction lender Built Technologies in the construction tech sector last quarter.  Venture funds have definitely grown in size in the sector, and the number of venture players focused on the sector has also grown (reference our 2020 Venture Investors 50 Lists ).  However, Fifth Wall continues to stand out in the field.

For more on Fifth Wall, watch our interview with Brendan Wallace at our Projects Conference in Los Angeles back in 2017, the year of their launch in the sector. It is interesting to hear what he was aiming at back then and to understand how that relates to this most recent deal.

For more from Fifth Wall team members and their perspective on venture in the Built Worlds, BuiltWorlds members can watch this session with Fifth Wall Managing Director, Roelof Opperman from our 2018 Venture Conference pulled from our library of more than 500 sessions on emerging tech in the Built World.

Fifth Wall Managing Director, Real Estate Technology Investment joins us at our 2018 Venture Conference to talk “bridging the gap” between industry and emerging tech.