PropTech1 Ventures, the European venture capital fund focused on the untapped innovation potential of the real estate industry, is the lead investor in the USD4 million seed funding round of the UK-based PropTech startup Desana.
PropTech1 Ventures, the European venture capital fund focused on the untapped innovation potential of the real estate industry, is the lead investor in the USD4 million seed funding round of the UK-based PropTech startup Desana.
Other notable investors in the financing round include BGF (Business Growth Fund), Techstart Ventures, the Canadian PropTech VC Ground Break Ventures, and the scout programme of Accel Ventures, one of the most recognised VC firm globally. Desana, the flexible workspace platform for global employers, allows employees to book exactly the office space they desire from a global network of co-working spaces or their company’s own office spaces, offering a future-oriented flexible work environment without disregarding the assets of a dedicated office space.
Apart from offering employees a great user experience via a simple-to-use app, Desana enables hybrid work by providing the software infrastructure and procurement compliance that large enterprises need to manage their workforces’ flexible decisions on where to work. Desana provides a holistic solution as the single contractual partner for a multitude of different offices, either flexible or fixed, and collects valuable usage data to generate insights for enterprises to truly understand how their real estate is utilised by different staff at different times.
For PropTech1, Desana represents the first investment in the UK, underlining the PropTech & ConstructionTech fund’s pan-European investment thesis. Already earlier this year, Kingma Ma joined PropTech1 to head PT1’s London office. Prior to joining PT1, Kingma Ma worked as an investment associate at the PropTech-focused VC investor Round Hill Capital/Ventures as well as an early employee in several startups (including Bought By Many, which has recently become a >USD2 billion unicorn) and also previously founded his own startup. Furthermore, Tzvete Doncheva recently joined to further ramp-up the pan-European platform, who also had a previous stint a Round Hill Ventures.
Kingma Ma, PropTech1 Head of UK, comments: “We are excited that with Desana we have found a solution in the UK that we believe will have a great impact in shaping the global future of work. But there are other interesting challenges that the UK market is faced with in particular, eg incoming green legislation affecting utilities and industry carbon emissions as well as the rapid changes in consumer habits, especially post-Covid and their impact on retail spaces, transport, and parking. These challenges give rise to incredibly exciting opportunities for PropTech startups to present real working solutions to the UK real estate market.”
