Ghent-based AMAVI Capital launches €60 million PropTech fund, eyes sustainability as key to success

The first property technology fund in the Benelux region, AMAVI Capital has raised half of its projected €60 million fund, specifically from real estate, technology and private equity players. With this unique combination of LPs, the firm is promising investments more than just money, but real industry know-how and valuable input.

“With the first PropTech fund in the Benelux to bring together real estate, technology and private equity, we are committed to combining European real estate expertise and capital. We are convinced that we can be the central cog that develops promising scale-ups into mature PropTech companies that bring real change to the sector, both in terms of sustainability and efficiency,” comment managing partners Arne Allewaert and Frederic Van den Weghe.

The AMAVI Capital fund is forward-looking, and places a heavy emphasis on investing in scale-ups that are invested in making the construction process more sustainable, and/or in big data analytics that are able to optimse the market and buildings.

“In a sector responsible for no less than 40% of all global CO2 emissions, the need for sustainable solutions is high. It is also no longer possible to reconcile the fact that the immense construction and real estate world - 60% of all assets worldwide are real estate - is also one of the least digitalised sectors. Productivity in the construction sector has actually declined over the past 50 years,” add Allewaert and Van den Weghe.

Amongst AMAVI’s existing investments, Belgian firm Shayp has developed an automatic water leak detection system for large buildings. The software provides real-time tracking of water consumption and alerts building managers to any anomalies.

Likewise, as we reported a few months back, AMAVI is invested in Finnish BIM software developer Gbuilder that allows customers to make all the finishing choices in a virtual 3D environment, culminating in a report about the ecological impact of their selections.

“It’s clear that we are aiming at the whole property value chain. So not only on buildings or their production but also for example on an improved customer experience and communication between different links in the real estate process, a clear need from the market,” conclude Allewaert and Van den Weghe.