Global connectivity rating company WiredScore has raised $15m (£12m) in series B funding led by London-based VC Beringea.
WiredScore has also been supported in the round by strategic and venture fund investors including Cushman & Wakefield, US-based Crow Holdings and Taronga Ventures, and one of Asia’s leading real estate tech investors. This is in addition to core returning investors Fifth Wall, Bessemer Venture Partners and Jona Capital.
The funding announcement follows a year of aggressive expansion for WiredScore, both in the UK and overseas, which has seen the company launch in 13 new countries.
Capital from this round, which brings WiredScore’s total funds raised to $28m, will be deployed strategically across sectors and geographies to “further accelerate WiredScore’s vision of becoming recognised and trusted as the leading voice for tech in the built world”.
Speaking to EG, president and managing director of WiredScore William Newton explained the strategic significance of the investors involved in this latest round.
“It is relatively easy to tell where we will be deploying funds if you look at the strategic investors,” he said. “Taronga is one of the leading VC firms in APAC and will support us as we look to expand our Singapore office to provide our services across the whole region. Crow Holdings is in the top five multifamily and industrial developers in North America and will allow us to expand our product in the US and maybe even launch an industrial product.
“Cushman & Wakefield’s involvement will allow us to expand our professional accredited network across the UK and then around the world.
“There are now over 8m people who live, work and play in WiredScore-certified buildings, but that is not the limit of our ambitions. We want to see a billion people living in smart, connected homes.”
Eyal Malinger, partner at Beringea, said: “There is a current, very real problem facing the sector: developers, consultants and real estate owners are desperate to make buildings smart, well-connected and competitive, but there are few common frameworks for evaluating these attributes, which is hampering innovation globally.
“WiredScore solves this dilemma by providing globally recognised standards, giving landlords, developers and tenants clear direction on how to deliver and operate in buildings that place technology at their heart.”
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