Norwegian proptech startup, Speiz, has raised €1.3M in seed funding round led by F-LOG Ventures. The funding will enable Speiz to continue establishing their new SaaS-enabled marketplace for commercial warehouse real estate in Norway and expand its reach across Europe.

This investment comes at a time when the commercial proptech industry will be facing significant challenges and changing demand. Despite the recession increasing interest rates, causing property yields to shrink and property prices to collapse, Speiz sees these difficult times as an opportunity to support businesses. With reports of a warehouse vacancy rate of just 3% in the UK, a strain on supply chains will be felt as SMEs across Europe scramble to find warehouse space in competition with larger retailers storing excess inventory leftover from the pandemic.

There has never been a better time for startup innovation in this industry. Speiz started in the Antler Accelerator Program in 2020, co-founded by CEO, Paulius Kvedaras. He joined the program to solve a key pain point his family faced on their farm in Lithuania, where warehouse facilities were often underutilised and operationally expensive due to seasonalities. Speiz was launched to be a cost-friendly, supplier-oriented solution to this common warehouse problem experience across the world and to help meet the ever-growing demand for warehouse space.

Paulius Kvedaras, CEO and Co-Founder of Speiz said: “The brokerage market is broken and in great need of overhaul. Analog technology, expensive fees and inefficient rental processes have defined this industry, resulting in lack of transparency and shirking margins. Speiz is creating a new definition of warehouse leasing that meets the needs of modern business owners today. In order for last-mile delivery, micro-mobility and similar industries to grow, warehouse spaces for businesses are a priority. Speiz understands this necessity, and offers a unique proposition to support their growth across Europe.”

German based Venture Capital fund, F-LOG Ventures, under the wider FIEGE Logistik investment wing, led the investment round. In show of support, Iron Wolf Capital and Lithuanian VC fund, Angel Fund, also invested into the seed funding of Speiz’s growth. To date, the Norwegian proptech has raised approximately €1.8M including investments from Antler, Startup Lab and TRK Group (Managed by Trond Riiber Knudson).

Tanja Rosendahl at F-Log Ventures, the lead investor said: “Distribution chains are changing in almost all industries, meaning warehouse facilities and distribution centers are more than ever a strategic competitive advantage. At the same time, they represent a significant cost factor. With the current search and leasing process for warehouse space being very non-digital, it’s almost unimaginable how the industry can move forward without proptech innovation. Speiz has developed a technology-enabled end-to-end solution that will be a real game changer - for both landlords and tenants.”

The start-up’s innovative product leverages the network effect to digitally transform the outdated brokerage market. Currently, Speiz’s pricing is 3-5 times cheaper compared to average broker market rates and removes up to 80% of the cost & time associated with leasing activities for suppliers. Both them and tenants can register free of charge to either list properties or submit searches. The new marketplace is cheaper and faster than working with brokers because it automates a lot of manual work with machine learning and smart algorithms used for data extraction & modeling as well as tailoring the search experience for customers. Speiz also offers supplier insights on market price and tenant needs enabling them to adapt and increase yield, bringing transparency to the market.

Currently, Speiz has data on over 1 million warehouses listings in seven markets, including the UK, Germany and Sweden and as a result has gained an impressive customer list that already includes the likes of ride app, Bolt and construction and engineering corporation, Elecnor.

Jose Rei, Norway GM of Bolt said: “Urban warehouse leasing has been key to Bolt’s development in Norway and finding the right location for our fleet of electric scooters and bikes was a challenge. Micro mobility services like ours require special electricity installations and are often a roadblock to our operations but Speiz understood that issue and found an ideal solution. Within a matter of days, we were up and running in the perfect space that met all our charging and location requirements to enable the deployment of our fleet.”

The €1.3M investment will be used for product development and business expansion. With a 10% month over month growth on new facilities data, and plans to use this funding to aggregate the largest European warehouse facilities database in commercial real estate - Speiz are primed to blitzscale across Europe. This kickstarts in 2023 with their first market expansion planned, thanks to this successful funding round.