Raising a $90m fund during a pandemic
In what has been one of the most disruptive periods for global private capital markets, raising a specialist VC fund has by no means been a walk in the park. That said, we remain humbled by, so very grateful for, and always excited by, the support of the various thought-leading investors that have chosen to support Pi Labs on our Fund III journey.
Following the close of our fundraise, we can reflect on what has been a challenging, rewarding and somewhat unorthodox fundraising process that yielded incredibly successful results. Most notably, the completion of our circa-$90m capital raise for Fund III.
The weird and wonderful quirks of fundraising from home
A common challenge throughout the process has, obviously, been the lack of face time with our potential partners. While this can mean you lose the human element of a sales pitch, the work-from-home environment helped to make the pitch more relaxed and less formal (with managing directors and CEOs turning up in pyjamas and tracksuits!), while the unavoidable “I think you are on mute” made for a good icebreaker. No travel time between meetings also meant we could be more efficient with our time and allowed us to speak with more potential partners than we might have otherwise been able to.
Where to now?
Despite the general difficulties of fundraising from behind a screen, we have onboarded LPs from around the world that are excited to re-shape one of the most dated and analogue asset classes out there: real estate.
The fundraise continued to build momentum as we progressed quickly towards our February 2022 final close. While first time investors with Pi Labs have helped expand our platform into new territories, we have also been overwhelmed by the support of our existing Fund I and Fund II investors, who have once again chosen to trust us with their investments.
As our team will tell you, I regularly explain to prospective LPs that our PropTech portfolio companies have had, from their conception, global ambitions. In what becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, with each new LP from around the world that joined the fund, we have seen ourselves realise these ambitions. With Pi Labs acting as a bridge between traditional real estate and its technological counterpart (PropTech), our portfolio companies gain incredible access to a growing list of mentors, clients, and ultimately, investors from every continent (…except Antarctica). Equally, we are keen to ensure that we support our portfolio companies by connecting them with blue-chip thought leaders invested in Fund III.
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