A European PropTech View with Richard Lindqvist, SF Ventures

Welcome back to ‘A European PropTech View’, with Dilan Omari our Q&A focused on European PropTech’s.

Our Q&A series is an opportunity for our European team, headed up by Dilan Omari to discuss all things PropTech, Start-ups, and Career with different founders from across the continent. Each week we will ask PropTech innovators burning questions and quiz them about their product, we hope you find it insightful and enjoy getting to know the founders as much as we have.

This week we have been in touch with Richard Lindqvist, Partner at SF Ventures.

SF Ventures is the Nordic’s leading early-stage PropTech VC firm. They combine real estate & business development expertise with a network covering over €40bn of real estate assets from their partner companies. They invest in founders with disruptive, tech-enabled products and platforms. Ultimately, solutions that reduce the industry’s carbon footprint and enhance NOI, that is, profitable both environmentally and financially. Their mission is to contribute in making the world’s largest asset class more digital, efficient and accessible.

Briefly tell us about yourself.

I think I would be described as multifaceted and business minded, with the core expertise in commercial real estate. I am thriving towards making an impact on the future of the real estate industry by supporting PropTech entrepreneurs from early stages, with an active approach to life – at work by being engaged in our companies and processes, in my spare time through sports and exercise.

My way into PropTech and investments came from studies in Real Estate & Finance at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and as a Trainee at the real estate company Klövern (acquired by Corem, June 2021). The initial role there was in the Transaction and Finance team, before I got engaged in their PropTech venture investments. From that role I came in contact with Andreas Nordgren who included me in an exciting journey with the industry consortium SF Invest, which led to us founding SF Ventures in September 2020.

Which VC are you representing?

I am representing SF Ventures, an early stage PropTech VC focusing on the Nordics.

Tell me more about your VC.

We have been up and running in this set up for 18 months and are a two-person management team, with support from a large group of advisors within our industry network. We have made 10 investments, in stages from idea to Seed with an average first ticket of EUR 250k.

What are your plans for 2022?

Our goal is to be the leading early stage PropTech investor in the Nordics. To have and to maintain that status we need to constantly absorb market insights, broaden our network, and deliver value to our portfolio companies. 

We plan to invest in new PropTech verticals, make more follow-on investments but foremost, put our portfolio companies in the best possible contexts to help them make real impact in the industry.

A part of our justification is pure lobbyism, working to push tech into real estate and the other way around. We are for example currently evaluating ways to branch PropTech and ConTech, technology for two industries that are quite far apart even though the core asset in both are buildings.

We get a lot of candidates that are looking to get into the PropTech VC space. What advice would you have for these candidates?

In the best of worlds I would want more people in VC with hands-on experience of making angel investments. We believe that investing others’ capital should be given the same evaluation and risk analysis as if it would have been from your personal account.

Experience from start ups, preferably as founder or from a role in a management team, combined with a good understanding of finance and visionary traits, are key for VC in general. For PropTech VC in particular, I believe that the skillset needs to be topped with a layer of domain expertise. The dynamics of our quite special industry are important to understand if you want to add value as an investor in the field.

Most young candidates fresh out of school can not tick all boxes, so for them I would recommend applying for an internship or job at a B2B startup and simultaneously stay updated on real estate market trends, news, and learn what strategic choices the largest players in each nearby market are making. Another great experience would be from a big real estate owner’s digitalization or innovations team, for the candidate to identify and understand what kind of services or products could be a valuable pain-killer, not just a vitamin tablet.