Fifth Wall is a venture capital firm founded in 2016 by Brendan F. Wallace and Brad Greiwe.[1][2][3] It manages the largest fund specialized in real estate technology [4][5] The firm's name refers to a fifth wall of technology it provides in addition to the four physical walls of a building.[6] It is part of an emerging category of "PropTech" investors.[4] Major financial backers include large real estate industry companies that agree to be matched with the products and services of the firm's portfolio of start-up companies.[7] The firm has separate funds for investments in emerging retail brands and climate technology to help real-estate companies reduce carbon emissions from their buildings.[8][9]
Founders
The firm was founded by Brad Greiwe and Brendan Wallace[9] Greiwe co-founded single-family home rental company Invitation Homes, which went public in 2017 with a $6.7 billion valuation; it received much mainstream attention for its business practices.[10][11]
Fifth Wall was formed in 2016 and announced the close of its $212 million real estate technology fund (Fund I) in May 2017.[15][16] Wallace said that the firm identified real estate technology as an underserved investment niche because the industry has traditionally used very little technology and was therefore open to disruption.[17]
In July 2019, the firm announced the close of its second real estate technology fund, or Fund II, which closed at $503 million. While Fund I was raised from nine investors in the US only; Fund II consisted of a global investor base from over 50 investors from 11 countries.[18] The fund's investors included CBRE Group, Cushman & Wakefield, Equity Residential, Gecina, Merlin Properties, Mitsubishi Estate, British Land, Prologis and Segro.[5] Fund II invested in a number of companies, but was focused on business-to-business enterprises such as the California-based Cobalt Robotics.[19]
As of February 2020, the firm managed over $1.1 billion in assets.[20][21] In 2021, Fifth Wall announced that it had raised more than $1.1 billion[22] across its funds and had a global investor base of over 90 investors.[23] In addition, several large real estate investors announced their investments into the firm's Climate Tech Fund, including Equity Residential, Hudson Pacific Properties, Invitation Homes, and Ivanhoé Cambridge.[24] "Real estate is kind of this massive industry when it comes to climate change, but at the same time we haven't seen the industry commit a significant amount of capital to the tech that's required to decarbonize it," Wallace said.[24]