WiredScore Scores $15M in New Funding
Beringea, Cushman & Wakefield, Crow Holdings and Taronga Ventures led the Series B round to further grow the digital connectivity certification proptech company
By Philip Russo June 29, 2022 7:00 am
reprints
While some proptech startups may be seeing funding dry up as the summer heats up, WiredScore, a company famous for certifying digital connectivity and smart technology in homes and offices, announced Wednesday that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding. The new funding brings the company’s total capital raised to $28 million.
Beringea led the round with key participation from Cushman & Wakefield, Crow Holdings, and Taronga Ventures. Returning investors included Fifth Wall, Bessemer Venture Partners and Jona Capital. Capital from this round will be aimed at further growing WiredScore’s reputation in the industry, the company said.
“WiredScore has firmly established itself as a leader in the real estate industry for prioritizing and enhancing a tech-enabled approach,” Eyal Malinger, partner at Beringea, said in a statement. “There is a current, very real problem facing the sector: developers, consultants and real estate owners are desperate to make buildings smart, well-connected and competitive, but there are few common frameworks for evaluating these attributes, which is hampering innovation globally.”
WiredScore’s reputation in the real estate industry is based on a number of factors that have given investors confidence in the company, even in the face of macroeconomic headwinds, said Arie Barendrecht, the company’s CEO and founder.
“Despite the slowdown in tech more broadly, when it comes to in-building technology it’s never been more important that our buildings are smart and digitally enabled,” said Barendrecht. “WiredScore and our new partners share a belief that there’s an opportunity to have a world-changing impact on many of the most pressing problems facing society today, whether it’s widespread access to great connectivity, sustainability and the climate crisis, cybersecurity and protecting against cyber threats, or health and wellness. Real estate can either be the problem, contribute to the problem, or be the solution. And landlords and developers need help.”
Founded in 2013, WiredScore has grown to include 130 employees, while certifying more than 800 million square feet of commercial and residential space, impacting 8 million people across 27 countries, according to the company.
The Manhattan-based proptech company plans to use its latest funding to continue its global expansion into Europe, as well as in the Asia-Pacific (or APAC) market, said Barendrecht.
“We think APAC is an especially attractive region for WiredScore. One of our new strategic investors is Taronga Ventures, which is the leading proptech-focused VC based in Australia,” he said.
The company also plans to use the funding to expand its WiredScore Accredited Professionals, which partners with property managers and building advisers to deliver certifications, Barendrecht said. “Those advisers can advise buildings on improvements that we recommend in the certification process. Cushman & Wakefield (CWK), one of our new investors, is going to be a key strategic partner in that AP platform expansion.”
Although WiredScore began with a focus on commercial real estate, it expanded in June 2021 to include the multifamily sector, offering a new certification product, WiredScore Home. Crow Holdings, one of WiredScore’s new investors, is among the world’s largest multifamily developers.
WiredScore partners with more than 900 of the world’s r real estate leaders, including Hines, Related, Nuveen, Greystar, SLGreen, Tishman Speyer and PGIM, certifying their assets’ digital infrastructure and smart building tech.
Philip Russo can be reached at prusso@commercialobserver.com.
