Romanian proptech startup Bright Spaces selected to join the Pi Labs accelerator in the UK

The Romanian proptech startup Bright Spaces, which develops the complete digital platform for showcasing and offering for office buildings and spaces, has been selected in the proptech (property technology) accelerator Pi Labs in the United Kingdom. Pi Labs is the first venture capital firm in Europe to invest exclusively in proptech startups and Europe’s most active investor in the field. Bright Spaces was chosen, along with 4 other European startups, out of a total of over 600 registered teams. The Romanian startup will enter a 15-week intensive program, with the objective of developing the product and scaling the company to the size and needs of the European office market.

As part of the program, Bright Spaces prepares for the next investment round. The core of the program is focused on strategic mentoring, collaboration with the real estate community and the opportunity to develop a network with the wider community of property and proptech, Pi Labs alumni and investors. The program will run from March to June and at the end of this period Bright Spaces will have the opportunity to present their products in front of an audience of investors, journalists and industry representatives.

“Acceptance in the Pi Labs accelerator means for us a leap of at least one year in the development of Bright Spaces. Access to a top real estate market worldwide, such as London, discussions with over 40 mentors and the possibility of obtaining the next round of funding from European investment funds specialised in proptech, clearly represents advantages. It was a tough competition, with a selection process carried out over several months, which involved a team effort and we are proud of the result. Although this public health crisis pushed the deployment of the accelerator in a 100% online environment, the benefits for us are, without a doubt, major,” says Bogdan Nicoara, Founder & CEO Bright Spaces.

„We picked Bright Spaces for our Accelerator because we have seen an increase in demand for digitalising the leasing process for office spaces. We were impressed by their team’s commercial and technology experience and passion for the customer. We believe they are well positioned to deliver this platform, which will ultimately make it easier for landlords to showcase their products virtually. In a post-Covid world, we need more visualisation platforms that let tenants immerse themselves in properties remotely”, says Faisal Butt, CEO and Founder of Pi Labs.

In the context of the travel and socialization restrictions currently imposed, the program run by Pi Labs this year will be the first to be performed remotely.

The Bright Spaces platform offers real benefits for developers / landlords of office buildings, real estate agents and tenants:

• a single information point for agents and potential tenants;
• the possibility of 3D showcasing the building and the available spaces in a completely digital environment, making it easier for the potential tenants to view the space and to ask for an offer;
• automatic mapping of all points of interest around the building (public transport, accessibility of city centre, restaurants, hotels, cafes, fitness rooms, etc.);
• Highlighting the major benefits for potential tenants through personalized metrics on each building and space: Employee Wellbeing Indicator, Team Productivity Indicator, Total Rental Cost;
• highlighting the differentiators, the special qualities of the building (LEED, WELL standards, building specifications, etc.);
• faster offer request (100% digitized) both for the agent / broker and for the potential tenant.

“Every office building can benefit from Bright Spaces digital solution. We have no limit on size and complexity. On the contrary, we can adapt the solution to long-term spaces and short-term or coworking, to subleases and to off-plan leases. In Romania alone we are talking about 5 million square meters of offices. In the CEE, the potential of the office market is 30 million square meters, in the UK 100 million square meters”, says Bogdan Nicoara.

Bright Spaces finalized in September 2019 the pre-seed round worth 185,000 euro for development and implementation, the funds coming from Sparking Capital, as Lead Investor, together with Growceanu Angel Investment and Ilinca Păun.

“The inclusion of Bright Spaces in the Pi Labs program confirms the confidence of Sparking Capital and other investors in the potential and scalability of the project. We will continue to contribute to the local and international development of Bright Spaces”, says Cristian Negruțiu, Partner at Sparking Capital – Lead Investor in Bright Spaces.

Previously, Bright Spaces won 1st place in the Retail category and 1st place overall at the Real Estate Hackathon organized by PropTech Romania (April 2019), 1st place at PropTech Demo Day (June 2019), and in November 2019, 1st place in the Leasing category and 3rd place overall at Skanska Proptech Hackathon.