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Greensoil Portfolio Company Goby Proves Attractive Acquisition Target for Conservice

Greensoil PropTech Ventures | September 03, 2021

Greensoil PropTech Ventures of Toronto on Thursday celebrated the sale of one of its portfolio companies, Goby, a Chicago-based data and invoice automation platform that helps buildings track, lower and report utility usage, to Conservice. Greensoil's investment in Goby dates to 2015 when they invested $4 million as lead of the first funding round through their Greensoil Building Innovation Fund (GBIF) and subsequently invested an additional $1 million in January 2017 and an additional $1 million in January of 2021, for a total of $6 million.

Founded in 2008, Goby is a leading environmental, social and governance (ESG) data management and reporting platform that has grown to serve hundreds of clients worldwide. Goby's users save time, mitigate risks and realize increased returns on their real estate investments, with the company's powerful software, which provides invoice automation, digitized workflows and analytics regarding a building's utility usage. Data collected by Goby's software allows building owners and operators to meet ESG-related goals and legal reporting requirements for energy usage.

Utah-based Conservice, is North America's largest utility management service. The firm pays more than $12 billion in utility bills, while serving over 5 million locations, including multi- and single-family housing and residential communities, commercial properties and student housing. Conservice has offered simplified utility management solutions since 2001.

"Greensoil PropTech Ventures congratulates Goby and Conservice," said Jamie James, Managing Partner with GSPV and a Goby board member. "Goby has excelled, for over a decade, with a powerful platform that captures and distills multiple data sources into simple, contextualized dashboards, tasks and reports. Its no wonder Goby proved an attractive acquisition given its ability to help property owners and operators cost-effectively monitor, reduce and report their buildings' energy usage."

The GSPV team has been working closely with a highly collaborative Goby management team and has two directors on Goby's board. While ESG reporting for commercial real estate was still in its nascent stages in 2015, it has become much more prominent now, leading to the space attracting highly capitalized and established incumbents to the market. This led to Goby receiving a strong acquisition offer ahead of expectations.

Conservice's acquisition of Goby comes on the heels of another Greensoil success – the sale earlier this week of 40% of its stake in Procore, which held a May initial public offering valuing the firm at $8.5 billion. Additionally, in March, Greensoil furthered its strategy of impact investing to digitize and decarbonize the built environment, with the recent launch of a $100 million (USD) fund called Greensoil PropTech Ventures Fund II. GSPV II seeks to invest in early to mid-stage companies that employ transformative property technologies in the U.S. and Canada, Europe and Israel.

GBIF is a pioneering $59 million (USD) PropTech-only venture capital fund, launched in 2015, with anchor funding from the London-based Grosvenor Group. Among other PropTech firms, it has successfully invested in companies that make smart home battery systems (ElectrIQ Power), a real estate deal management platform (Dealpath), wireless lighting controls (Amatis), carbon sequestering technology for concrete (CarbonCure) and construction management software (Procore).

ABOUT GREENSOIL PROPTECH VENTURES
Greensoil PropTech Ventures' mission is to digitize and decarbonize the built environment, the biggest asset class on the planet, which is responsible for up to 40% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. GSPV invests in early to mid-stage venture capital opportunities in North America, Europe and Israel that make real estate more productive, efficient and sustainable. Backed by real estate and institutional Limited Partners, GSPV has a successful track record of backing, scaling and exiting high-impact PropTech companies.

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