PropTech1 Ventures

Nikolas Samios and Anja Rath, the co-founders and managing partners, jointly oversee all investment decisions. Both bring extensive real-estate operating and venture building experience, having worked at the intersection of property and technology before launching the firm in 2017.

The firm concentrates on property technology broadly defined: building operations software, energy management and carbon accounting, construction tech, smart building hardware, tenant experience platforms, and digital brokerage and mortgage tools. Its mandate also extends to adjacent climate solutions applicable to real estate portfolios, including building decarbonization and energy efficiency retrofits.

Sourcing relies on a network of corporate real-estate partners — developers, landlords, and property managers — who serve as pilot customers for startups. This industry-embedded model allows the firm to evaluate products through real-world deployment feasibility, which is particularly valuable in the long-sales-cycle, built-world environment. The co-founders also leverage deep European real-estate and venture networks.

The firm invests primarily in German-speaking Europe — Germany, Austria, Switzerland — plus the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom. It will selectively consider deals in other European markets when the technology has clear cross-border scalability potential within the European built environment.

The firm prefers to lead or co-lead seed through Series B rounds, allowing it to secure board representation and influence strategy. It will participate as a co-investor in larger syndicates, particularly when a fellow specialist investor leads, but its model is structured around active, hands-on engagement with portfolio companies.

It is one of a very small number of dedicated, pure-play PropTech funds in Europe. Generalist funds occasionally back property-tech startups when the deal meets their horizontal software metrics; PropTech1's entire team, LP relationships, and sourcing channels are specific to real estate technology. Its corporate landlord partners also give portfolio companies testing environments that generalist VCs cannot offer.

The first fund, closed at €47M in 2019, backed companies including Sensorberg and Evernest. Evernest was subsequently acquired, representing a realized exit from Fund I. The fund's portfolio spans smart buildings, energy analytics, and digital brokerage, with the firm actively managing these assets while the second fund deploys into new investments.