Pi Labs Research
Investment Thesis
Pi Labs is a specialist early-stage venture capital firm based in London backing founders who are creating a digital and sustainable built world. Founded in 2014 by Faisal Butt, the firm was built on the observation that the real estate industry is analogue, antiquated, and carries a large sustainability burden, and that technology can redefine the next decade of real estate the way it redefined the previous decade of other industries. Pi Labs was one of the earliest dedicated proptech funds globally and has since built deep sector expertise across construction, buildings, cities, and the future of work.
The firm's current (fourth) fund sharpens the thesis toward AI-native startups building the technology layer for the built world: AI for real estate investment management, agentic tools for site coordination, and AI/robotics for construction and infrastructure delivery. Their published research (whitepapers on "The Agentic Investor," "Infrastructured," "Techopolis," and "Sustainably Intelligent") consistently frames the built environment as one of the largest and most under-digitized verticals for AI application.
Sector Focus
Pi Labs invests across four stated pillars:
- Sustainable Construction
- Efficient Buildings & Infrastructure
- Sustainable & Healthy Cities
- Future of Work, Retail & Living
Fund IV (2025) narrows additional focus onto AI-native and robotics-enabled startups digitizing and decarbonizing real estate, construction, and infrastructure.
Stage Focus
Pi Labs invests from pre-seed through Series A, plus follow-on reserves for existing portfolio companies. They are typically the first institutional check and often lead or co-lead.
Check Size
Ticket sizes range from £350K to £2M (per firm's own site), with the "Get Funding" page citing pre-seed rounds around £350K and Seed–Series A rounds up to £3M. Deal data (Dealroom, Tracxn) shows an average Seed round participation size of roughly $2.6M and average Series A participation near $6-8M, consistent with Pi Labs writing meaningful checks and often leading.
Lead Tendency
Pi Labs frequently leads or co-leads its seed investments — recent examples include leading VerbaFlo's $7M seed round and co-leading (with Realyze Ventures) Companion.energy's €7.8M seed round. The firm's own site and press describe them as "leading" and providing board seats/observer rights, consistent with a lead-investor posture at seed stage.
Recent Activity
Fund status: actively deploying. Pi Labs closed its third fund at $90M in March 2022 (backed by LPs with a combined ~$350bn AUM, including Sellar) and, per Dealroom, currently reports ~$103M in assets under management. In 2025 the firm launched a fourth institutional fund targeting a £100M close, focused on ~50 AI-native, pre-seed to Series A startups in the built environment; Dar Ventures joined as a strategic investor in May 2025, and Balfour Beatty invested £10M into the fund in mid-2026 to accelerate innovation in infrastructure delivery. The firm passed its 100th investment milestone in mid-2026, having made roughly 100 investments across 15 countries over four funds with 19-20 exits to date.
Recent deal activity includes leading VerbaFlo's $7M seed round (AI real estate platform, March 2026), co-leading Companion.energy's €7.8M seed round with Realyze Ventures, and leading Veridue's $4M pre-seed round (energy infrastructure due diligence, September 2026). One portfolio company, LiveCosts, was acquired by Smartcraft to strengthen Smartcraft's UK market position.
Portfolio Highlights
Pi Labs has built a portfolio of roughly 90-100 companies spanning proptech, construction tech, climate/energy tech for buildings, and workplace software. Notable active portfolio companies include LandTech (land sourcing and planning software), Hubble (flexible workspace marketplace), Plentific (property maintenance/repairs marketplace), OfficeRnD (workspace management software), Houst (short-let property management), Realyse (real estate data/analytics), HausBots (facade-cleaning robotics), Switchee (smart thermostat/IoT for social housing), Kestrix (building retrofit/thermal imaging AI), and VerbaFlo, Companion.energy, and Veridue among its newest AI-native bets. LiveCosts exited via acquisition by Smartcraft.
Team
- Faisal Butt — Managing Partner & Founder. Founded Pi Labs in 2014 out of frustration with how analogue and carbon-intensive the real estate industry remained; leads the firm's overall strategy and investment decisions.
- Stefania Ponzo — Partner (non-governing)
- Michael Murad — Partner and Director
- Hugo Silva — Partner (non-governing)
- Michelle Wilk — Principal
- Dhruv Gupta — Principal
- Juliet Kerr — Investment Associate
- Gaurav Bassan — Head of Finance
The firm also maintains a network of Venture Partners (including Colman Stephenson of Rematch, Phil Cowans of Nested.com, and Mike Bristow of CrowdProperty) and a Board/IC that includes representatives from RevCap, CrowdProperty, Prestbury, and Värde, plus an extensive external mentor network of built-world operators and executives (from firms including UBS, Blackstone, PGIM, Greystar, and Blackrock alumni).
Decision Process
Investment decisions run through a partnership structure with a dedicated Fund III Investment Committee that includes external members (e.g., Mike Bristow of CrowdProperty), plus board directors and observers drawn from strategic LPs (RevCap, Prestbury, Värde). This points to a partnership/IC-style process rather than a solo-GP model.
Founder Preferences
Pi Labs favors technical and domain-expert founders tackling structural inefficiencies in the built environment — construction, energy, cities, and the future of work — with a stated willingness to back ambitious, higher-risk technology bets ("we are not afraid to take risks") rather than incremental proptech. The firm markets itself as a long-term, hands-on partner offering sector expertise and access to its global ecosystem of 400+ founders, mentors, co-investors, LPs, and Venture Partners, and runs an active Growth Programme (accelerator-style cohorts, 13+ cohorts to date) for earlier-stage founders.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in London, investing globally with a stated footprint across 15 countries; the site materials show particular current emphasis on Europe/UK, with expanding interest (via research content) in North America and MENA proptech markets. Fund IV is explicitly aimed at scaling startups globally from the UK, Europe, and North America.