Build-to-rent developer Amro Partners has launched a venture capital arm with £25m to invest in proptech and fintech start-ups.
Amro aims to back at least 10 ventures over the next 12 months and will increase the funds committed in the coming years.
The company has agreed its first investment, backing property transaction platform Coadjute. The technology connects conveyancers, estate agents, mortgage lenders, brokers, buyers and sellers using blockchain technology and will launch in the summer of 2021.
Amro is seeking investment opportunities in the built environment, working as co-investor and strategic adviser. It has pinpointed carbon reduction, waste management, finance and customer-centric models as areas of particular interest.
Ami Kotecha, head of venture investments at Amro Partners, said: “Customer and end-user experience is a key theme of our venture investment strategy.
“There are around one million transactions in the UK housing market every year, with a home being the single largest asset for many people. A vast majority of those transactions are conducted using semi-automated, duplicative processes that make buying or selling property expensive and fraught with friction and risk.”
In the past decade Amro Partners has built a £350m portfolio of assets under management. The real estate business recently secured £90m from Pension Insurance Corporation to build The Wiltern in Ealing and has a strategy to reach a portfolio size of £1bn by 2030.
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