M7 enlists former Altus Group corporate venturing boss for VC firm

M7 Structura has launched its first fund, with Conan Lauterpacht, former head of corporate venturing at Altus Group, at the helm. M7 Real Estate’s new venture capital firm is focused on real estate technology in Europe. It will invest in revenue-generating proptech companies at the institutional seed investment to series A fundraising stage. Lauterpacht (pictured), who has taken on the role of managing partner, also sits on the board of Aprao, a development appraisal platform. He joined Altus in 2016 before leaving the business last year. Before he was head of corporate venturing at the firm, he served as chief operating officer of Voyanta, a data management and analytics platform. At Voyanta, he was responsible for business operations and sales, before the platform was sold to Altus in 2014. Lauterpacht said: “The potential for the deployment of technology throughout the real estate value chain is huge and by launching M7 Structura we plan to connect capital, technology and real estate to help unlock this potential.” Richard Croft, executive chairman of M7 Real Estate, said: “M7 has been a champion of technology from day one and we have always strived to be an organisation that embraces innovation and new ways of doing things. “We believe very strongly in the massive role technology has to play in the future of our industry and we look forward to M7 Structura making its first investments under Conan’s stewardship in due course.” M7’s recent investments include IPSX, the first regulated stock exchange dedicated to trading shares in real estate; Jasper, a proptech company providing access to high-quality commercial real estate investment opportunities; and Unissu, the world’s first proptech marketplace.   To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@egi.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @estatesgazette