Finance Monthly October 2019 Edition

all isn’t an option when it comes to talent. A business cannot rely on a founding team of “identikit” investment bankers to thrive, nor a management team who have spent their entire careers in the real estate industry. Conversely, a group of technology experts without sector knowledge could quickly become mired in regulations and stumbling blocks the Real Estate experts could avoid. A diversified team, with a range of expertise and experiences, is essential for any start-up that wishes to succeed. PropTech players respond Although PropTech is still thought of as a nascent industry, the reality is that some verticals are more established and this allows us to draw some conclusions about the future of talent. The Shared Economy sector is booming, with well-known examples including WeWork and AirBnB, both of whom have already disrupted the market for talent. If we take the open opportunities on the Airbnb website, over 25% of the roles are within Product, Data Science & Engineering. The rest fall within the spectrum of marketing, operational roles (including customer service and recruitment) and finance. Over time, the balance of these roles will change – at early stage for example, we would expect product/data science roles to be a much in proportion, followed by marketing, with operational and finance roles being a lower priority – but it’s clear that these four pillars of expertise need to evolve together. Getting the right balance at the right growth stage is essential for progression from seed to Series A funding and onwards to pre-IPO. Grasping the investment opportunity Talent disruption is not limited to start-ups: we’ve also witnessed the emergence of innovative specialised investors, with hybrid capabilities, combining real estate and data technology expertise. This new breed of capital challenges the classical VC fund model and offers an alternative for PropTech start-ups looking to grow. A/O PropTech is at the forefront of re-thinking the traditional investment model for PropTech. Having anchored this innovative approach in Europe, combining deep data-tech and real estate know-how with large scale owned and operated RE portfolio, it invests permanent capital to support entrepreneurs and start-ups looking to disrupt the world’s largest asset class. As Gregory Dewerpe, A/O PropTech founder, explains: “By being a fully integrated player, with hybrid investment capabilities, deep industry knowledge and significant strategic RE portfolio, we position ourselves as a unique enabler for companies looking to reimagine, create, incubate, iterate, scale and disrupt the real estate ecosystem. Our permanent capital approach creates a complete alignment with entrepreneurs, removing structural timing limitation and potential inefficiencies from the decision-making process, allowing to us be stage agnostic and focus on investments where we can be relevant and strategic with our assets, network, and ecosystem”. By reshaping the eco-system from within into something more efficient, transparent, accessible and connected, these new investors help to transform the sector. Final thoughts Whilst no-one can tell the future, we can learn from the examples of the past. The maturation of other tech verticals (e.g. MarTech and FinTech) has already disrupted talent pools and over the years we’ve both seen and been involved in the transformative path that they’ve taken. By applying this to PropTech, we’re well-placed to anticipate the high-level changes in talent and team building that are required as the industry continues to evolve. 25 www.finance-monthly.com FINANCE & BUSINESS - PROPTECH