Call for (ground-breaking) PropTech startups to join Pi Labs Cohort 9!
Since the inception of Pi Labs in 2015, the accelerator has been played an integral part in finding the latest, most exciting PropTech innovations. We are the first PropTech investor based out of Europe, having a pan-European focus since our inception, with 44% of founders coming from outside of the UK. Top-performing start-ups such as OfficeApp, LandTech, OfficeRnD, and REalyse have all come out of the Pi Labs programme.
Today, I am super excited to announce that we have started the application process for Cohort 9, our 15-week accelerator programme scheduled to start in March 2021. If you are working on an exciting PropTech solution and want to benefit from our capital, expertise, and network — apply here!
Last June, I wrote a piece that summarised our experience from Cohort 8 -our very first, fully remote programme that accelerated 5 amazing B2B PropTech startups in a pandemic. Being online provided some unexpected benefits for our teams, such as higher productivity and access to an even wider pool of customers, investors and mentors. Of course, there were also some unavoidable hurdles when making the programme virtual, such as a more limited interaction within the cohort teams and the wider Pi Labs portfolio.
Now, with Cohort 9 around the corner, we are laser focused on optimising the programme to this new normal and continuing to improve the format.
ACHIEVING LP & MARKET RELEVANCE
Every accelerator is preceded by a long origination exercise, where in addition to receiving applications, we also actively look for the most exciting PropTech solutions. Last year, we worked with our partners (LPs) to identify key themes of interest, which we based our scouting strategy around, ensuring that we could maximise the opportunity to introduce our start-ups to real estate owners and operators and turn these interactions into real-world trials & pilots. This worked very well for our teams and our LPs, however we want to expand this relevancy to the wider market. With Pi Labs scaling our research capacity, we now have a much better view of the global PropTech scene and we feel that combining insights from our partners and our macro research will help us select teams that are best suited to our current economic, social and environmental landscape.
IMPROVING COHORT COLLABORATION
As for improving the collaboration within the cohort — this was no easy task and with COVID hitting us with zero preparation — this was initially a tough nut to crack! Luckily, this is also something that we, as a Pi Labs team, have been thinking about and have had to solve over the past 6 months. For us, the solution is twofold — a clearer structure and more frequent touchpoints.
We are taking all these learnings forward and are adoping them for the strategy for this year’s cohort — ensuring that our newest investments benefit from the efficiency of online communication, but also benefit from the collaborative aspect that they would have otherwise had in a physical format. A big social aspect of the programme last year were our Speaker Series, where every Wednesday evening, an experienced PropTech founder joined us to share his/her journey and answer any questions that teams might have in an informal and friendly setting. We’re very much looking forward to that again this year, but we will also add a variety of new touchpoints between teams through additional sessions.
WHO SHOULD APPLY?
For the accelerator, we are looking for start-ups that fall anywhere between the pre-Seed to pre-Series A spectrum. If you are a founder / team that is thinking about building, is already building a PropTech product, or has already monetised and are looking to grow your client base, then speak to us. We are interested in talking to teams that are based in UK and Europe, as well as those that are further afield and have ambitions to build a global business. When we started the accelerator in 2015, two of our earliest joiners were the founders behind Office App and Office RnD — originally operating from Amsterdam and Bulgaria, respectively. We supported the two teams through our first editions of the accelerator, helping them scale geographically. Now 4 years later, they both have built global businesses and are scaling internationally.
The Pi Labs programme is unique in the way we tailor the 3 months of active engagement, taking into consideration the specific needs of teams, enabling us to cater to different geographical focuses. In Cohort 7, we did so for Wealthi — an Australian startup, who we supported in exploring the UK and European market when they joined us. In Cohort 8, our most international programme to date, we supported teams from Austria, Romania, France and Bulgaria embed themselves in the UK PropTech scene.
The highly tailored nature of the programme also gives us flexibility in terms of stage — we focus both on startups at the MVP stage, as well as those that are further along — startups that are generating revenue and growing their client base but are not yet Series A ready. This difference in stage ties directly with the different ways you can join the programme — the warrant or fixed equity deal, which are explained in detail further down. One of the teams last year was a startup with a number of paying clients already established across the DACH region. Pi Labs supported the team to explore the UK market, which landed them a couple of local pilots despite the pandemic.
We invest in PropTech startups across the entire real estate value chain, but we do tend to focus on several specific themes each year. This year, two themes that we’re actively investing in are sustainability and the future of real estate investment management. Something else that we are turning a keen eye towards are technologies that improve the overall wellbeing within buildings and construction. The current global pandemic has already altered the way people perceive and interact with buildings, and we feel this opens a huge opportunity for supporting technologies that can enhance the health, safety and wellness of our built environments. That being said, it is important to note that we’re still very much interested in speaking with teams operating outside of these focus areas. We are very happy to be surprised by a new idea, concept, and product that we haven’t even thought about yet!
We are also making an additional provision this year and we are allocating 1–2 spots in the accelerator to teams operating outside of our core markets (UK & Europe), but with an interest to penetrate those markets.
TERMS
There are two ways through which teams can join the programme — an equity or warrant deal. This ensures that the programme and our terms remain relevant to both teams that are at the pre-revenue stage, as well as those that have launched their product to market and are making revenue already.
The equity deal is a fixed upfront investment of £100,000, in return for 7.5% of equity. Although a fixed deal, the investment and equity percentage are reviewed on an annual basis, ensuring that our terms remain one of the most competitive.
For startups for whom the equity deal does not work, we have an Option B, the Warrant option. With the Warrant option, we accept teams onto the programme without us investing capital or taking any equity upfront. The agreement grants the startup access to our network and expertise and the entire accelerator programme. In return, Pi Labs gets the right to invest up to 7.5% of equity in the startup’s next round. In this case, Pi Labs will get a 20% discount to the valuation of the next round, in order to reflect the hands-on support through the programme — read below for more on that below.
In addition, for all teams that join the programme, we are looking at establishing a long-lasting relationship, where based on performance Pi Labs can invest in subsequent fundraising rounds as start-ups go on to raise their Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds.
VALUE
However, access to current and future capital is only the start. The real underlying value of the Pi Labs programme lies in our strategic business support, through hyper-tailored workshops & 1:1 sessions with relevant mentors. We work extensively with teams over the 3-month period, in order to effectively embed them within the Pi Labs ecosystem of investors, customers, advisors, partners and alumni and establish relationships that extend well beyond the scope of the programme.
This support also extends beyond what would be considered typical business support. We provide support and expertise to encourage resiliency and longevity in founders and employees, to ensure that the companies we invest in have a real, sustainable impact in the sector. We support the holistic health of founders by providing dedicated mental health sessions, as well as access to a growing support network. A key area of focus for us is leveraging our real estate and investor network to help you secure clients, pilots, and funding for your next rounds — this is an area we are super passionate about.
We also stay in close contact with teams well beyond Demo Day, when the cohort officially graduates from Pi Labs — we are currently actively supporting teams that graduated from Cohort 8, as they now start raising their next rounds and develop their products to cater for a wider audience.
Applications for out latest accelerator, starting in March 2021 are now open.
If you are working on an innovative PropTech solution, please don’t hesitate to send us your application — we’ll aim to get back to you within 2 weeks and arrange for an initial call if we feel there is a match.
We will also be hosting online Office Hours across some key geographies and themes, where you’ll have the opportunity to sit down with one of our investment team members and pitch your product on a 1:1 basis. Our Office Hours will cover all European markets, as well as a couple of teams we have identified, with our first Office Hour falling on October 14th and covering the UK market. You can see a full breakdown below.
In order to book a meeting with the investment team, please follow this link. You’ll be able to select the Office Hour session that you are interested in, and also provide us with some basic information ahead of the call.
As previously mentioned, don’t worry if you don’t fall within the geographies or themes for our Office Hours, we are still interested in speaking to you!
We’re very much looking forward to shaping our next Cohort with the best PropTech teams, so if you’re working on an amazing solution and are thinking about next steps, please make sure to send us your application. Alternatively, if you would like to learn more about our offering or just want to have a chat, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at boyan@pilabs.co.uk.
