Celebrating women in PropTech
And our approach to diversifying our investment pipeline
I couldn’t decide whether to title this piece, ‘Celebrating women in PropTech’ or ‘Where are all the women in PropTech?’ — although both are equally reflective of what I’m writing about today, I went with the former because as you will see, the achievements of the women below are truly worth celebrating.
Where are we?
With PropTech sitting at the intersection of Real Estate and Tech, two sectors that have historically seen low female representation, it’s no surprise that the female founder share of the PropTech industry sits somewhere between 5 and 20%. If like me, upon reading this you exhale a disappointed sigh, I invite you to shift your attention to what can be done to improve these statistics.
Currently the percentage of female founders in our portfolio at Pi Labs roughly matches up with what we’re seeing in our deal flow process. I.e we could easily come to the conclusion that this demonstrates an overall sector issue and that there are just not enough women starting PropTech companies or approaching venture capital firms for funding. In all honesty, that’s been the train of thought for some time. However, a shift in mindset is needed if we are ever going to improve the number of female-founded companies in our pipeline and encourage change within the sector as a whole.
What are we doing about it?
1/ We are firm believers that you can’t change what you don’t measure, so we’ve made a commitment to tracking our deal flow data and evaluating gender in all of the deals we‘re seeing. This is and will be an ongoing effort going forward — and I’ll be sure to update on our progress in due course.
2/ We’ve begun the internal work required to create a diversity and inclusion strategy which will see us drive meaningful action from within — whether that’s through implementing inclusive programmes and policies aimed at improving female career progression, rethinking our hiring processes with the view of removing inherent bias, getting involved in programmes which support access to the Venture Capital industry (Future VC), or more generally fostering a culture where everyone regardless of background, ethnicity, or gender feels welcome.
We are by no means perfect or exemplary on this crucial subject, but we are insistent on continuously learning and improving.
This is where I’d love your help — while there is much work to be done around empowering more women to enter the industry in the first place, it’s also crucial that we diversify the ways in which we source potential investments if we’re going to make a meaningful shift. I’ve listed a few areas of focus for us below, however I’m eager for this to be a collaborative effort from which we can all benefit, and ultimately encourage change within the wider sector.
1/ Take a step back and learn from angels and VCs who have experience investing primarily in female founders (if you fall within any of these groups, please shout! 🙋). I’d like to run focus groups with angels, VCs, female founders and leaders so that we can get a better understanding of where we are falling short in terms of our scouting and external marketing efforts. If you’d like to be involved in this please get in touch directly: sophie@pilabs.co.uk.
2/ I’d love to see this post broadcasted far and wide within the venture bubble and beyond, encouraging female founders working on a solution within the real estate space, to get in touch . We can offer, funding, expertise, access to our network or even just a chat, we’d love to hear from you! 📞
3/ I want to continuously work to lift the female businesses within our portfolio and within our networks. These women are the best advertisements for the sector which we could hope for! 🙋
On that note, I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the cutting-edge female-founded businesses currently within our portfolio — though really they need no introduction from me, as they are already well on their way to becoming household names within our sector. We’re excited for what’s to come from these female-led businesses and to see a growing group of women entrepreneurs in this space 🚀
QFlow
Brittany and Jade launched Qualis Flow in 2018 with the sole ambition to build a more sustainable future. Two years on and their ConTech platform is being used by constructions teams to track and manage their social and environment impact using a data-driven approach which combines IoT and machine learning.
“I want to make this industry I love, a more sustainable one” — Brittany Harris, CEO & Co-Founder at @ QFlow.
Built-ID
Founded in 2015 by Savannah de Savary, Built ID is an online platform that transforms how property developers connect with consultants and local communities, enabling local communities to voice their opinion on projects going on in their neighbourhoods. For example, if a private company purchases a dilapidated building, locals can vote on what they would like to see take its place.
Most recently, it has been used by a cross-party group of politicians to gauge solutions on how to tackle the Housing crisis in the UK.
Kamma
Late last year we announced our investment into London-based RegTech platform and world-leading geospatial technology company Kamma founded by Orla Shields, and we are so excited to be a part of the growth of this female led company as well as to be supporting the team on their journey.
“Kamma is a clear example of how technology can provide real solutions for issues in the real estate industry. Through its innovative platform, Kamma has digitised a complex and time-consuming task for agents, lenders, investors, mortgage brokers, and local authorities. — Esha Vatsa, Principal at Pi Labs.
Generation Home
Sophia Guy-White, is one part of the husband and wife duo behind Generation Home, a new (and better) kind of mortgage lender 🏡
The rate of homeownership amongst young people has slumped over the past 20 years and they are working hard to reverse that trend. We’re really excited to be working with them as our investment into Generation Home is part of a larger initiative at Pi Labs aimed at making home ownership more accessible to all.
Their deposit booster effectively allows buyers with small deposits to ask others to put money up towards their home purchase and in exchange they’ll receive a share of the property ownership. Friends and family members can also help top up monthly payments.
- To recap, if you’re interested in taking part in any upcoming focus groups aimed at increasing diversity within our sector, or maybe you have some insights to share, or you’re just keen to connect over this and chat, please reach out via sophie@pilabs.co.uk
- If you’re a feeling female founder building a solution within the real estate sector, we want to hear from you! Please get in touch through this link.
Look forward to hopefully speaking to many of you soon! 👋 👋
