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Prudence, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology companies, announced today that it has closed an $80 million fund aimed at investing in proptech startups. The commitments to Prudence Fund III brings the firm’s total assets under management to $230 million.
Since its founding in 2009, Manhattan-based Prudence has been investing in early-stage companies across multiple verticals, including construction, real estate, infrastructure and climate/energy adaptation.
Prudence has already made initial investments from the fund, including AI Clearing, an AI-powered autonomous construction progress tracking and quality control platform; Propexo, property management software that helps engineers to work faster; and VendorPM, an automation platform for vendor management, sourcing, procurement and compliance for property managers.
Jordan Viniar, a partner at Prudence, declined to comment on how much the firm invested in the three proptech companies, but added, “I can say broadly that we’re still very early in the deployment of the fund.”
Viniar also declined to name the leveraged partners invested in Prudence. “We have a really great investor base that’s made up of a combination of institutions, family offices, high-net-worth individuals, and I think, importantly in the sector we play in, strategic capital as well. We were happy to have the support of a lot of our existing investors and then a handful of new investors to sign up for this one as well.”
As to what types of proptech startups have attracted Prudence’s attention, Viniar said, “It’s a lot of the fairly obvious things. It’s large-end markets historically untouched by technology, a fantastic management team, and great technology. Importantly, we are looking for very technical solutions, typically. So, even though we play in a lot of businesses that touch the real estate space, we’re less interested in actually touching the physical asset and more interested in the technological advancements that are driving change in the real estate world.”
Viniar said the initial three investments touch on those kinds of technical capabilities.
“AI Clearing is a good example of that,” he said. “They’re leveraging computer vision and artificial intelligence to do real-time progress tracking and quality control of infrastructure sites. So, large markets like solar, roads, bridges and rail — these are these are projects that historically have never been able to be accurately tracked without the use of technology. It’s just ripe for disruption and an industry that needs technology to really start to advance. That’s the perfect type of investment for us.”
Prudence has previously invested in industry-leading companies such as Compass (exited in an IPO), Crexi and Casafari. The firm’s latest fund tops the size of its last and previously unannounced fund of $65 million raised in 2020, and continues its strategy of making concentrated, high-conviction investments in early-stage companies with advanced technological capabilities, large market opportunities, and great founding teams, according to a company statement announcing Fund III.
The firm invests at the seed to Series B stages, and leads or co-leads investment rounds, aiming to invest in 10 to 15 companies per fund and supporting its founders through active roles as an investor and a board member.
Philip Russo can be reached at prusso@commercialobserver.com.
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