Spacent team · Apr 21st 2020
Lifeline Ventures has made a substantial investment in TRACTR Ltd. Previous investors Halton Group and Reaktor also joined the financing round of 1.85 MEUR.
TRACTR’s aim is to bring solutions for large occupiers in order to build adaptability, sustainability and efficiency in their space use. The company also works with property owners and operators in order to boost their income and customer base. TRACTR is founded by real estate professionals who have wide experience in service architecture, real estate development and consultation.
“We saw a really big potential in TRACTR’s end-to-end solution in bringing flexibility for occupiers and the team has the right background for implementing the vision that we share with them. For users their solution enables “use what you need” and very adaptive space solutions. For property owners TRACTR’s platform enables higher revenue by selling underutilized space even on an hourly basis to a large customer base. Both user and owner benefit from being part of a large network where space supply and demand can be scaled up fast” says Juha Lindfors, partner at Lifeline Ventures.
Returning to the new normal will create a lot of demand for adaptable solutions. Many companies are more focused on being able to adapt to changes in business environment and are very conscious on using resources more efficiently.
Traditional corporate real estate has focused on finding fixed locations which has led to low utilization rates, low level of flexibility and high costs. Also, the current corporate real estate model does not support current trend in flexible working for employees. There will still be an important role for fixed locations for companies but with emphasis on quality (location, flexibility, co-operation etc.) instead of quantity. Many surveys have revealed that for majority of people, working in distributed locations is preferable to the “old” model where work is done mainly from main office.
“Distributed work is a big wave that will change the working culture. The pandemic and returning to work will make this happen faster. With our tools both the large occupiers and operators can manage this transformation” comments Antti Tuomela, CEO and Co-founder of TRACTR.
TRACTR founders Antti Tuomela, Jarmo Suominen, Eetu Ristaniemi and Anssi Salonen believe that Lifeline is the best investor at this stage for the company, Lifeline has expertise and strong networks in scaling companies up internationally.
“We need to have enough fuel for our development roadmap”, Tuomela argues. “And we are preparing for really fast scaling up phase. The completed funding round is an important step in this“.
Juha Lindfors states that TRACTR has a strong founding team that has deep knowledge of the dynamics in the sector. “TRACTR’s business model really hits the core of the industry’s value chain. The company offers a solution to tackle the problem of empty or under-utilised office space and excessive construction. Low utilisation rates are a worldwide phenomenon. Also, buildings are directly and indirectly the largest CO2 source globally.”
TRACTR Ltd. was founded in 2019 but the methods and business model has been developed by the founding team since 2010 in various projects at MIT, Tongji and Aalto universities.
Lifeline Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded by serial entrepreneurs. Lifeline’s latest fund, Lifeline Ventures Fund IV, was raised in 2019 with 130MEUR in commitments.
Antti Tuomela, CEO of TRACTR Ltd
antti.tuomela@tractr.ai, +358 40 719 4007