Los Angeles-based proptech fund Fifth Wall has made its first European investment, backing pop-up company Appear Here.
This will be the first investment made outside North America by the fund, which was launched in May by former Blackstone associates Brendan Wallace and Brad Greiwe with a $212m raise and backing from major property players including CBRE, Hines and Prologis,.
Speaking to EG about the investment, Wallace and Appear Here’s Ross Bailey said they were introduced over the summer before signing a deal for an undisclosed sum around three months ago.
“We are really excited about Appear Here’s US launch and so we have invested. Our first investment outside of North America. We were impressed by the traction Appear Here has in the US and the UK and we saw an opportunity to accelerate what Ross has done here in England in the US. Obviously the owners are quite different in the States but the dynamics are pretty much the same.
“Many people think retail is dying and Amazon is taking over the world. But the actual picture is more complicated than that… the age of new, smaller format stores which are more about curate and less about throwing your products into a store and hawking them to customers and building a brand identity and creating a place where people can do more than just buy really excited us. And Appear here is so far down the fairway of that theses.”
Bailey added: “Our current focus is on London, Paris and New York – three of the biggest retail cities in the world. Having a presence in those three gateway cities gives us a chance to roll out our vision of creating a global network of space that anyone with an idea can take. And Fifth Wall can really help open up access to landlords across much of the US.”
For the full details of the deal and Fifth Wall’s future plans, listen to the podcast:
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