Tag: Voka Ondernemers

Finnish ConTech company GBuilder has completed a €2M financing round led by Amavi Capital with participation from existing investors Butterfly Ventures and Vendep Capital. The funds will be used to accelerate international expansion in their target markets which include the UK and DACH.

“We quickly found common ground with AMAVI. In addition to capital, they bring in a huge amount of industry know-how and networks. The partnership enables faster growth in international markets.” says Harri Majala, CEO of GBuilder.

GBuilder’s product is a BIM-compatible software for residential and commercial developers that digitizes the customer journey, material selections and modifications, visualizations, inspections, and communication processes. With over 30.000 housing units being processed on the platform, the software is already widely used by Scandinavia’s largest residential developers, such as YIT, Bonava, and Hartela, but also in countries like the UK, Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Baltics and Slovakia.

“The international construction industry is now clearly undergoing a period of transition in terms of both practices and values.” analyzes Jarmo Ollila, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer. “The challenge is dual: to provide a unique customer experience while managing internal processes reliably and efficiently. We can provide a unique solution that creates benefits for the whole value chain.”

“GBuilder’s proven traction in Europe convinced us of the company’s growth potential, AMAVI Capital sees an exceptional tool that generates a unique customer experience, while at the same time streamlining the complex execution processes in the back-office and on the construction site. In the construction industry, the company’s holistic BIM-based approach is exceptional and the benefits it brings are not only diverse but also indisputable,” Arne Allewaert, managing partner at AMAVI Capital comments.

Finnish ConTech company GBuilder has completed a €2M financing round led by Amavi Capital with participation from existing investors Butterfly Ventures and Vendep Capital. The funds will be used to accelerate international expansion in their target markets which include the UK and DACH.

For more information, please visit https://gbuilder.com/

For any inquiries, please contact;
Harri Majala, CEO & Founder
harri@gbuilder.com
+358 44 556 2940

About AMAVI Capital
AMAVI is a Pan-European investor established to support growth of the leading and most promising companies active in the PropTech industry, with a geographical focus on the Benelux, Nordics, Germany, Switzerland and France. AMAVI aims to create a bridge between the traditional real estate industry and the most groundbreaking European PropTech companies, by leveraging its combined expertise and network from the real estate, technology and private equity industry. https://amavi.capital/

About Vendep Capital
Vendep Capital Oy is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in fast-growing SaaS companies. Vendep Capital has 40 million euros under management. The funds were raised from Finnish private and institutional investors such as Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment) and The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. https://www.vendep.com/

About Butterfly Ventures
Butterfly Ventures is one of the leading seed stage focused VCs in the Nordics and Baltics. Right now Butterfly Ventures invests into deep tech and hardware startups. Butterfly Ventures has 30 million euros under management and the partner team has so far invested into 84 companies. Butterfly Ventures was founded in 2012 and it has offices in Oulu, Helsinki and Stockholm. https://butterfly.vc

In the beginning of 2020, six entrepreneurs founded AMAVI Capital. This European investment fund focuses on real estate technology, also known as PropTech. Arne Allewaert, who helped start up ION and helped it to grow, is one of them. Although he is making a new start with AMAVI, he is sticking by his existing values regarding innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Together with his partner Frederic Van den Weghe, he explains why they believe in real estate technology.

How do you define real estate technology?

Frederic: “Real estate technology is about digitization and innovation in all of the real estate and construction sectors’ processes. This ranges from prospecting for land, through the construction and sales processes to the management and use of a building. One example is a Paris company that collects data such as prices, demographics, and permissible construction heights and depths. They combine these data to develop a tool that lets you search for the most interesting plots throughout France. For example, there may be a plot of land with a three-storied building, in a place where the law allows you to build one with six. This tool will then automatically generate building volumes, make financial feasibility studies, and also contains the contact details of the landowners.”

Where does the idea of investing in that sector come from?

Arne: “Everyone knows we are not sustainable today. The construction and real estate sectors are responsible for 40% of global emissions. More and more companies realize that it’s time for a change. Real estate technology can help find sustainable construction methods or reduce energy and water consumption in buildings. We recognize that the real estate sector is the next one that needs to innovate, so digitization is almost a no-brainer. We like to compare PropTech with the FinTech movement of recent years. After all, online banking and contactless payments are now the new normal.”

“We have created an ecosystem where the oldschool real estate world can connect with the new-school real estate technology.”, Arne Allewaert

What kind of investors are you aiming at?

Arne: “AMAVI is bringing together real estate, technology, and private equity. Our investors can also be found at that intersection, from real estate developers to construction companies and technology companies to more traditional investors. They are companies that already have a sense of innovation. We don’t want to be a fund that merely raises capital, makes investments, and yields returns. AMAVI wants to create an ecosystem where the old-school real estate world can connect with the new-school real estate technology. The investors will also assess their own investments, which makes it very relevant.

You started in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. How did that go?

Frederic: “Of course, last year’s investment climate was a lot better, but there’s still a lot of interest. The investment market is not static but is shifting its focus. The coronavirus crisis has accelerated technological changes. For example, take the notarial profession. For many years, it was impossible to buy real estate without being physically present at the table. You can now give an electronic power of attorney and buy or sell via videocall in just a few weeks’ time. The COVID-19 crisis certainly has made real estate technology more interesting.”

Bundling of expertise

AMAVI has shareholders from three relevant sectors. Davy Demuynck, Kristof Vanfleteren and Arne Allewaert come from the real estate world. Frederic Van de Weghe and Paul Thiers have expertise in private equity, and Jonas Dhaenens has proven experience in the technology sector.

Shayp combines an easy to install sensor with advanced software analytics, allowing property owners to reduce water consumption by over 20%. As water shortages and costs are on the rise, Shayp transforms how the building sector addresses leakages and unnecessary water usage. The Brussels based company successfully completed their Seed Financing Round with new Investors SIGNA Innovations and AMAVI Capital onboard.

Smart funding for Shayp

Two European venture capital investors specialised in property technologies (PropTech) back Shayp to help accelerate and expand its water saving services across Europe towards private and public real-estate owners. Signa Innovations from Berlin, led Shayp’s Seed round with participation of AMAVI Capital from Belgium along with past investors and Finance&Invest.brussels closing the round at 1.9M€.

“The team has identified a key trend and has been able to show impressive traction presenting us with a clear growth strategy and exciting opportunity.” – says Juergen Fenk, CEO of Signa Innovations.

Water usage is a major concern for the building sector

Founded in 2017, Shayp was quick to assess that 1 in 3 buildings present costly leakages all year round, due to faulty plumbing, leaky toilets and compromised systems. These leakages can account for anywhere between 10% to 60% of the organisation’s water bill since a vast majority go unnoticed or unreported by personnel.

“The real estate sector accounts for over 70% of the water supply, making it a key player in addressing the increasing water shortages we are facing. This is where we want to help and make a difference.” – says Alex McCormack, CEO of Shayp.

Pushing the boundaries in simplicity and performance

Shayp helps real-estate owners reduce water consumption in buildings by over 20% simply by addressing leakages and system discrepancies, and providing better control and insights on water usage overall. 

By combining a single sensor installed in less than 5 minutes and machine learning techniques, Shayp identifies leakages and system anomalies in real-time across the whole building water supply. An intuitive and comprehensive webapp immediately alerts staff and helps prioritise interventions cost-effectively. Users can track the history of the actions taken, the water saved and identify any further measures to improve water consumption.

“Shayp has developed an industry leading IoT enabled SaaS solution and was able to get an impressive market traction in a very short time period.” – Arne Allewaert, Managing Partner of AMAVI

Verified and proven results for Shayp’s customers

After raising their pre-seed round in April 2018, backed by Belgium based imec.istart & BEAngels, Shayp has helped public and private organisations save hundreds of thousands of euros annually, including municipalities, hospitals, offices, retailers, schools and multi-residential real estate owners. As an example, the City of Brussels set up a large action plan and is now saving over 50 million liters of water per year thanks to Shayp. The Solar Impulse Foundation, founded by Bertrand Piccard, awarded Shayp early this year with the Efficient Solution label after its proven benefits with the City of Brussels.

If you’re curious about how Shayp can help you improve water usage within your organisation, you can find them at www.shayp.com or simply send them a message to info@shayp.com. 

About Shayp

Shayp is a fast growing technology company based in Brussels that provides advanced software analytics for monitoring water consumption in buildings and infrastructures. They help property owners and managers reduce costs and time in relation to plumbing maintenance, water usage and operations thanks to high resolution monitoring and machine learning. Shayp was founded in October 2017 and aims to reduce water demand in the building sector by helping property owners better control water usage across their assets.

About SIGNA

The SIGNA Group is a privately managed European investment and industrial holding company active in the real estate, retail and media business sectors. Since its foundation in 1999, SIGNA has succeeded in developing into a company of truly European scale and format. Today, SIGNA is one of Europe’s most important real estate investors and operates a number of reputable commercial concerns.

SIGNA Real Estate employs about 550 people at ten locations in Austria, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The Gross Asset Value of the real estate group amounts to 18 billion euros, and the development volume amounts to twelve billion euros.

SIGNA Innovations plays a decisive role in the digitalisation of the real estate market. The company invests in leading early stage start-ups that create new, innovative ideas, platforms and business models within the PropTech, ConstructionTech and CleanTech sectors. SIGNA Innovations leverages its unique know-how and network to help founders scale their companies as well as offering interesting returns, and making SIGNA an innovation leader.

About AMAVI

AMAVI is an independent and dedicated Pan-European investor established to support growth of the leading and most promising companies active in the PropTech industry, with a geographical focus on the Benelux, Nordics, Germany, Switzerland and France. AMAVI aims to create a bridge between the traditional real estate industry on the one hand and the most groundbreaking European PropTech companies on the other hand, by leveraging on its combined expertise and network from the real estate, technology and private equity industry. AMAVI partners with the world-shapers, creating companies that radically change the places we live, work and relax in today.

Door verregaande digitaliseren en andere vernieuwingen vers bloed geven aan de vastgoedmarkt: dat is de ambitie van Amavi Capital. Het investeringsinitiatief werd opgericht door 6 partners om scale-ups actief in ‘PropTech’ (Property + Technology) op Europese schaal te laten doorgroeien. “Als de conservatieve vastgoedmarkt nog maar een fractie efficiënter zou worden, kan dat leiden tot veel besparingen. De timing is ook goed: de coronacrisis nodigt vastgoedondernemers uit om hun business opnieuw uit te vinden.”

• Uit Voka Ondernemers – Editie 11 2020

Vastgoed is verbonden met andere sectoren die wel al volop digitaliseren, zoals de financiële wereld. Die zullen de vastgoedsector meetrekken in het digitale bad” Arne Allewaert, Amavi Capital

Amavi Capital bundelt het beste van 3 werelden: vastgoed, private equity en technologie. Arne Allewaert legt uit hoe zijn ‘geesteskind’ tot stand kwam. “Ik heb 10 jaar ervaring in de vastgoedsector, waarvan 8 bij ION. Daar kwam ik destijds als eerste medewerker het team van Davy Demuynck en Kristof Vanfleteren versterken. Na samen met hen heel wat watertjes te hebben doorzwommen, kwam ik tot de conclusie dat de vastgoedsector veel efficiënter en sneller zou kunnen opereren door de vlottere adoptie van technologie en innovatie.

Veel ervaring aan boord

Allewaert deelt die visie met Frédéric Van den Weghe, die heel wat ervaring in private equity heeft. Hij was destijds een van de eerste medewerkers van de Belgische afdeling van Waterland, deed veel consolidatietrajecten binnen diverse sectoren en bouwde daarna ook als partner het Belgische kantoor van de Nederlandse private equity-speler Gilde Equity Management uit.

Hoe dan ook groeit de sector als kool. Of hij trekt toch in elk geval veel kapitaal aan. “Als je de investeringsactiviteit van proptech vergelijkt met die van de bekendere fintech, zie je dat proptech ongeveer vier jaar achteropligt”, zegt Arne Allewaert. “Maar het volgt hetzelfde steile groeipad.” Hij refereert aan cijfers van het dataplatform Venture Scanner over de toename van de wereldwijde investeringen in proptechbedrijven: van 1 miljard dollar in 2012 naar meer dan 15 miljard dollar in 2018.

Tegelijk wint de jonge sector aan maturiteit en neemt de erkenning in de klassieke vastgoedsector toe. Tekenend is de opmars van het Amerikaanse Fifth Wall, het grootste durfkapitaalfonds dat focust op proptech en dat wordt geruggensteund door meer dan vijftig zwaargewichten in de vastgoedsector, waaronder CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, British Land, Mariott, Macerich en Prologis. “Iedereen weet dat er efficiënter en professioneler kan worden gewerkt”, vervolgt Arne Allewaert. “Grote investeringsbeslissingen worden nog heel vaak genomen op basis van een buikgevoel in plaats van objectieve data-analyse. Nochtans is het een gigantische sector. Het Wereld Economisch Forum heeft samen met The Boston Consulting Group berekend dat een stijging van de productiviteit met 1 procent in de sector een besparing van 1 miljard dollar op jaarbasis oplevert. Dat geeft aan wat op het spel staat.”

“Om onze ambitie te realiseren, was het essentieel ook een expert uit de technologiewereld aan boord te halen. Dat is Jonas Dhaenens, frontman van team.blue, één van de grootste Europese Europese leveranciers voor domeinnamen en websitehosting Frederic Van den Weghe, Amavi Capital

Naast een zeer uitgebreid Europees netwerk, bouwde hij ook een schat aan expertise op in de consolidatie van de markt waarin hij actief is. Ook de 3 oprichters van ION (Davy Demuynck, Kristof Vanfleteren en Paul Thiers) stappen mee in ons verhaal, al staan we voor de rest volledig los van deze Waregemse projectontwikkelaar. Arne en ik staan in voor de dagelijkse operationele leiding, maar de ervaring én het netwerk van de andere partners zullen uiteraard voor een duidelijke meerwaarde zorgen in onze ambitie om een Europees PropTechfonds te creëren dat scale-ups zal ondersteunen in hun verdere groei.

Snellere digitalisering

Met de resultaten van enkele recente studies achter de hand, is het duo overtuigd dat ze met Amavi Capital voor een doorbraak kunnen zorgen. “Wereldwijd vertegenwoordigt de vastgoedmarkt een waarde van 230 biljoen dollar en 60% van alle assets. Helaas is het een sector met veel informatie-asymmetrie en weinig transparantie. Uit een onderzoek van McKinsey blijkt dat de bouw- en vastgoedsector zeer slecht scoren op vlak van digitalisering. Momenteel wordt er ook nog te weinig gedaan met de beschikbare data, voor heel veel beslissingen gaat men puur af op het buikgevoel”, gaat Arne verder.

In de toekomst zal dat sowieso moeten veranderen, vinden beide heren. “Vastgoedbedrijven spelen momenteel nog onvoldoende in op de verwachtingen van de jongere generaties, die zowat alles wat in hun leven gebeurt op digitale dragers volgen en meer flexibiliteit eisen. Die ervaring kan het gros van de vastgoedspelers vandaag onvoldoende bieden, waardoor ze moeten oppassen voor concurrentie van erg op technologie gerichte bedrijven, die de vastgoedmarkt zelf willen bespelen omdat ze er – terecht – veel potentieel in zien.” Daarom zijn ze er bij Amavi Capital rotsvast van overtuigd dat alle schakels uit het bouwproces zullen moeten optimaliseren, onder meer door sterk in te zetten op digitalisering. “Bovendien zal de sector ook antwoorden moeten vinden om haar gigantische impact op de CO 2 -uitstoot gevoelig te doen dalen én in te spelen op de sterk stijgende trend naar urbanisatie. Ook daar zijn momenteel heel wat bedrijven uit de PropTech-markt mee bezig. Het is onze bedoeling die momenteel erg gefragmenteerde markt te laten consolideren door gerichte investeringen in de meest beloftevolle bedrijven. In functie daarvan zijn we al met een aantal bedrijven in gesprek. De eerste participaties zullen er mogelijk snel aankomen. Momenteel investeren we nog met middelen van de oprichters, het fonds zelf staat in de startblokken. Daarvoor zullen we voornamelijk mikken op vastgoed gelinkte investeerders, om een brug te kunnen slaan tussen de klassieke vastgoedwereld en de nieuwe PropTech-wereld”, besluit Frédéric Van den Weghe.

Beloftevolle sector

In Europa zijn zo’n 3.000 PropTechbedrijven actief. Die Europese bedrijven vertegenwoordigen 40% van de wereldwijde PropTech-scene, maar ontvingen in 2018 maar 8% van de wereldwijde PropTech-funding. Amavi wil investeren in de meest beloftevolle bedrijven.

“De sector moet antwoorden vinden om de CO2-uitstoot te doen dalen én om in te spelen op de sterk stijgende trend naar urbanisatie.” Arne Allewaert en Frédéric Van den Weghe, Amavi Capital