London’s A/O announces first close of €250M fund; aims to drive climate resiliency, energy transition

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London-based A/O, a enterprise capital agency primarily targeted on built-world applied sciences, introduced on Friday the primary shut of its €250M second fund.

The fund goals to put money into applied sciences that goal to scale back greenhouse gasoline emissions, construct local weather resilience, speed up the vitality transition, and digitalisation of the actual property and development industries. 

A/O’s Imaginative and prescient: Investing in constructive transformation

Based in 2019, A/O is dedicated to investing in applied sciences that allow the ‘constructive transformation’ of the constructed world, an idea that drives the agency’s technique all through.

The scope of A/O’s funding panorama covers the whole lifecycle of the constructed world. 

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The agency directs its capital in direction of numerous areas, together with provide chain optimisation, revolutionary supplies, structure, engineering, and development (AEC), constructing operations and administration, in addition to decarbonisation, local weather resiliency, electrification, vitality transition, and digitalisation. 

The corporate’s funding portfolio encompasses an array of applied sciences, spanning software program, {hardware}, deep tech, and synthetic intelligence.

Via Fund I, A/O invested in 22 firms all through the lifecycle of the constructed world.

Examples of climate-focused verticals of their portfolio embody: 

• SPAN (California-based housing electrification) 
• Satellite tv for pc Vu (UK-based Earth Statement agency) 
• PassiveLogic (US-based next-gen BMS leveraging AI to function buildings extra effectively.
• 011H (Spain-based sustainable mass timber prefab developer) taking an asset-light and software-first method to timber development 
• Plentific (UK-based property administration software program platform and trades market 

First investments from Fund II

A/O has already introduced its first two investments beneath Fund II. 

The fund has invested €19.4M in Enter’s Sequence A spherical, an organization A/O has supported since its Seed spherical. 

A/O’s second funding is in an organization in stealth mode. The corporate is creating a digital-first resolution and software program platform to deal with the expert labour shortages hampering the retrofitting business.

A/O at the moment counts 13 workforce members throughout investments, analysis, and knowledge science with a singular variety of background, expertise, ethnicity, and gender. 

With Fund II, the agency plans to rent extra traders, in addition to its first head of sustainability who will assist execute the agency’s proprietary “impactful change” framework and assist speed up sustainability objectives throughout its stakeholders.

Gregory Dewerpe, Founder and CIO of A/O, says, “We imagine this is among the largest business transitions of our technology, that can see the emergence of among the most important category-defining know-how firms globally.” 

“Moreover, the emergence of AI within the constructed world is displaying very promising potential to additional speed up the transition to automation, effectivity, and transparency throughout the whole lifecycle of property and energy the following wave of adoption.” 

“The tougher market situations of the final 18 months have been an excellent reminder for a lot of that being a specialist agency with deep experience, backing know-how that issues, and aiming to resolve mission-critical issues is an effective place to be in,” says Dewerpe.