Will O’Donnell

Prologis is one of the largest developers and investors of industrial real estate, but it’s also building a formidable presence in venture capital through Prologis Ventures. Launched in 2016, the investment vehicle has funneled more than $250 million to over 50 early- to growth-stage startups working primarily in the AI, robotics and supply chain technologies.

William O’Donnell has been heading up the shop since its inception, with the mission of integrating some of these investments into the mothership to keep it ahead. 

Take Archipelago, which uses AI to help property owners improve their insurance coverage and mitigate risk. Or Tangible, a startup that helps measure and reduce embodied carbon in building materials. 

Doubling down on sustainability, Prologis Ventures invested this year in Terra CO2, which is developing a low-carbon cement replacement. The funding came through a $124 million Series B round, which also counted Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Al Gore’s Just Climate as investors.

Though only four of Prologis Ventures’ startups have nabbed exits, the results
have been promising so far. This year, Data.World — a platform that helps firms sift data, with clients that include Siemens, the Associated Press, Norwegian Cruise Lines and Penguin Random House — was sold to AI company ServiceNow. While the terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, the deal bodes well for Data.World’s future, given that ServiceNow is on the way to becoming a behemoth, having recorded more than $11 billion in revenue last year. 

Prologis Ventures has even landed a unicorn. Last year, Timee, a Japanese platform that helps retail and hospitality workers fill short-term shifts, went public, nabbing a $1.1 billion valuation, Reuters reported. 

Baton, an AI startup that aims to eliminate waste in freight logistics, was sold to trucking giant Ryder Systems in 2022, just three years after Prologis’ investment.