Where Are Smart Money VCs Investing In Real Estate Tech?

A good indicator that an industry has arrived is when the top venture capital firms begin investing in it.

We used the CB Insights Business Social Graph, which maps relationships between investors and target companies, to visualize where smart money VCs are investing in real estate tech, an emerging industry that is raising money and seeing deals at record levels.

(For more on how we selected the 24 smart money VC firms, see the note at the end of this post.)

Our real estate technology category encompasses all the software tools and platforms used by different participants in the real estate industry, including brokers, investors, real estate-focused lenders, commercial property owners and managers (including multi-family buildings), as well as buyers.

The category includes online real estate rental and buying guides, but excludes startups primarily focused on in-building services, e.g. office management.

Click on the image to enlarge. 

Overlapping smart money investments in real estate tech:

• The mortgage tech space has seen an uptick in activity recently. One company with several smart money VC backers is Blend labs, a company that collects and digitizes pay stubs, tax forms, and bank statements for borrowers to give to their lender. Blend labs has raised over $42M to date and is backed by three smart money VCs including Founders Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Andreessen Horowitz.
• Another company to share multiple smart money VC investors is apartment listing and search company Zumper. The company has raised almost $20M to date and is backed by Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen Horowitz, and NEA.

Broader Categories:

These categories were among those that saw interest from more than one smart money VC.

• Crowdfunding – platforms here allow investors to participate in debt or equity financings for residential and commercial real estate. Companies that have attracted smart money investors include Cadre, RealtyShares, Property Partner, and RealCrowd.
• Tech-enabled brokerages – companies here have in-house brokers and often provide their own listing services. RedFin (Greylock Partners) and Compass (Founders Fund) are two of the most well-funded companies in the real estate tech space and have raised $166.9M and $118M, respectively.

Note: To analyze smart money trends, we looked at the activity of 24 top VC firms, selected according to portfolio valuations and investment outcomes. Some of the investors are linked to relevant research briefs. Here’s our full list of 24 smart money investors:

1. Sequoia Capital
2. Benchmark Capital
3. Accel Partners
4. Greylock Partners
5. Andreessen Horowitz
6. Union Square Ventures
7. First Round Capital
8. Bessemer Venture Partners
9. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
10. New Enterprise Associates
11. Founders Fund
12. Lightspeed Venture Partners
13. Foundry Group
14. Index Ventures
15. Khosla Ventures
16. Social Capital
17. Emergence Capital Partners
18. True Ventures
19. Floodgate Fund
20. General Catalyst Partners
21. CRV
22. Spark Capital
23. Battery Ventures
24. Redpoint Ventures

Want more data on real estate tech companies? Login to CB Insights or sign up for free below.