Patrizia picks up M7 tech team

Patrizia is expanding its expertise in the real estate tech sphere with the acquisition of M7’s Structura team. Patrizia has been gradually expanding its involvement in real estate tech with investments in Pi Labs, US proptech VC Camber Creek, WiredScore, BrickVest, Taronga Ventures’ Real Tech Ventures Fund, AI platform Cognotekt, data management company Evana and asset management software provider Control IT. M7 launched the specialist tech fund in October 2019, recruiting a collection of investment specialists to the fund, including Conan Lauterpacht (pictured), former head of corporate venturing at Altus Group. At launch, M7 Real Estate executive chairman Richard Croft said he hoped that the fund would become a bigger part of the M7 portfolio. The transfer of the Structura team comes as M7 confirms the sale of its €5.3bn (£4.7bn) real estate platform to Oxford Properties. Croft said that its tech investments had been transferred to Oxford, which has its own ventures division, and that Patrizia was a much better fit “for what the Structura team wanted to achieve”. M7’s tech investments include IPSX, the new regulated stock exchange dedicated to trading shares in real estate; Jasper, which provides access to property investment opportunities; and real estate tech listing and content platform Unissu. Patrizia declined to comment on the deal. To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette