Cushman & Wakefield has joined forces with Dragon’s Den star James Caan’s venture capital fund Spire Ventures to launch Europe’s first accelerator to support property start-ups.
Property Innovation Labs, known as Pi Labs, will launch today at a 20,000 sq ft Shoreditch office, east London to assist start-ups focused on property and technology innovation by offering them access to funding, mentoring and business space.
The accelerator company has been been founded by Faisal Butt, co-founder and chief executive of Spire Ventures, and prop-tech entrepreneur Umesh Kumar. It will be located at Second Home, the work space created by David Cameron’s former tech adviser Rohan Silva.
Cushman & Wakefield’s involvement as a strategic partner on this programme is expected to cement the group’s focus on supporting entrepreneurs, tech innovators and start-ups in the property sector.
The group’s tech team, led by partner and head of property at Tech City Juliette Morgan, will relocate to Second Home in order to advise each round of young companies.
As of today, start-ups will be able to apply to join the Pi Labs accelerator programme with the first intake due to take up space on one of the 24 available desks in January 2015.
Digby Flower, UK chief executive of Cushman & Wakefield, said: “The convergence of property and technology will transform the way our clients operate in the future… Our partnership with Pi Labs and being embedded at Second Home puts us at the very core of London’s burgeoning tech sector.”
Faisal Butt, Pi Labs founder and chief executive, said: “Pi Labs’ vision is to drive the next generation of technological innovation in the property sector.”
