Financial fund creator Vauban clinches £1.6m raise for real estate launch

A seed round led by proptech VC Pi Labs.

Vauban, which lets investors create funds and investment vehicles online, has raised its first seed round from investors including proptech VC Pi Labs, Kima Ventures, Westloop Ventures, Argonautic Ventures and UFP Fintech.

The £1.6m raise is specifically earmarked to help Vauban expand its focus into the world of real estate funds and special purpose vehicles (SPVs).

So far Vauban, led by CEO and founder Rémy Astie since 2018, has focused on the small and mid-size venture and private equity fund space, where its online process has been used to form over 120 funds.

Last month Astie told AltFi that Vauban’s launch into real estate had been delayed while the company focused on its existing market and its own fundraising, clearly the delay has paid off.

The fintech’s chief operating officer and founder Ulric Musset said today: “This funding round will allow us to effectively expand with an eye on real estate, private equity, private debt and collectibles in new jurisdictions.” 

“With support from Pi Labs, which is largely considered to be the most impactful and established investor into the proptech market, we have a strong network to effectively launch into the real estate market and continue to grow our customer base.”

Vauban reiterated its target of creating funds worth £1bn by mid-2021, and its existing funds have been used to facilitate deals into the likes of Airbnb, SpaceX, Atai Life Science, Calm and Algolia.

“Vauban has taken what has traditionally been a drawn-out process and digitised it, reducing friction for those looking to secure and deploy,” said Esha Vatsa, principal at Pi Labs.

“With a boom in alternative assets the scaling company is set to be the infrastructure layer that investment will be built on.”