APG, Ivanhoe Cambridge Invest in Taronga Property Technology Fund

Fund managers APG and Ivanhoe Cambridge have become the latest global investors to commit capital to Taronga Ventures’ flagship property technology vehicle.

Netherlands-based APG, which manages investments on behalf of Dutch pension funds, made its first proptech investment in Asia Pacific with its contribution to RealTech Ventures I, Taronga announced this week. Quebec pension fund manager Ivanhoe Cambridge, meanwhile, continues to pursue the diversification of its APAC portfolio with an eye towards sustainability.

“Technology is a major driving force for real estate to transition into a much more sustainable asset class and we want to remain at the forefront of new technologies and emerging trends globally,” said Sylvain Fortier, chief investment and innovation officer at Ivanhoe Cambridge.

Sydney-based Taronga’s latest partners join a line-up of heavyweights invested in RTVI, including Mitsubishi Estate, Nomura Real Estate Development, Grosvenor, PGIM, CBRE, Australia’s Dexus and Germany’s Patrizia.

Sustainability Focus

The amounts pledged by the two fund managers were undisclosed, but Taronga last April said it had upgraded its initial $50 million target for RTVI to a range of $75 million to $100 million.

The fund backs global emerging firms that have a relevance for the Asia Pacific region, with a strong focus on sustainable and clean tech companies.

“The partnership will allow us to have direct access to some of the latest innovations in our industry which will bring long-term benefits to our wider real estate portfolio,” said Graeme Torre, managing director and head of real estate for APG Asset Management Asia Pacific. “The fund’s strong focus on ESG-related tech also perfectly aligns with our vision to drive longer-term sustainability within real estate.”

The fund’s key investments include the CarbonCure system, which reduces a building’s carbon footprint by introducing recycled CO2 into fresh concrete. Taronga also backs construction project monitoring software OpenSpace, which provides 360-degree photo documentation of sites and automated progress tracking.

The pooled-capital vehicle makes two or three investments per quarter, Taronga managing partner Jonathan Hannam told Mingtiandi last year.

Lengthening Line-Up

Taronga announced last June that two of the best-known names in Japan’s business world, Mitsubishi Corporation and Nomura Real Estate Development, had agreed to come aboard as strategic partners.

The capital commitments by the Japanese firms followed UK developer Grosvenor’s announcement last April that it was investing in RTVI. Grosvenor, a centuries-old group controlled by the Duke of Westminster and his family, praised Taronga as “leaders in the space” of real estate technology.

The link-up with Grosvenor came just over two months after US fund manager PGIM Real Estate acquired an equity stake in Taronga, as well as investing in RTVI.

Taronga has offices in Australia and also in Singapore, where the firm has expanded its RealTech X innovation scheme to accelerate the growth prospects of emerging proptech businesses in the city-state.