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1Sharpe Ventures: Venture capital firm investing in early-stage proptech, real estate, construction, and fintech companies shaping the built environment.
1Sharpe Ventures is an Oakland, California-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology startups operating across the real estate, construction, and financial services sectors. The firm targets pre-seed to Series A companies located in North America, Latin America, and Europe. It typically backs founders with initial check sizes ranging from $500,000 to $2 million to help bring large offline industries online. Operating as the venture arm of 1Sharpe Capital, which manages over $2.5 billion in assets under management, the firm closed an oversubscribed $90 million inaugural venture fund in 2022. The organization maintains a portfolio that includes investments in recognizable property technology and fintech companies such as Roofstock, Lessen, Flock Homes, and Cottage. 1Sharpe Ventures was formalized in 2020 as an extension of the broader investment platform originally founded in 2016 by Rob Bloemker and Gregor Watson.
Key people at 1Sharpe Ventures.
Key people at 1Sharpe Ventures.
# 1Sharpe Ventures: Transforming the Forgotten 50% of the Economy
1Sharpe Ventures operates as the venture capital arm of 1Sharpe Capital, a full-spectrum institutional investment management firm founded in 2016[3]. The venture division was formalized in 2020 to focus specifically on early-stage technology companies transforming traditionally overlooked sectors of the economy[3]. The firm's core mission centers on what it calls the "Forgotten 50%"—the foundational industries like real estate, construction, insurance, and financial services that have historically received minimal venture capital attention despite their outsized importance to GDP[4].
The investment philosophy rests on a fundamental observation: while venture capital has concentrated heavily on consumer technology and software, the industries that form the backbone of economic activity have remained largely underfunded and technologically stagnant. 1Sharpe Ventures believes that advancements in artificial intelligence and modern technology infrastructure can now unlock dramatic efficiencies in these legacy sectors, enabling new entrants to dethrone incumbents and create entirely new market norms[4]. The firm operates across three primary verticals: credit, housing, and venture, with a geographic focus spanning North America and Europe[4].
1Sharpe Ventures emerged from the deep operational experience of its co-founders, Rob and Gregor, who began collaborating in 2014 while running parallel efforts in the single-family rental (SFR) market[3]. Their partnership crystallized through Dwell Finance, a bridge lending platform they built together and subsequently sold to a Blackstone subsidiary in 2015[3]. This transaction provided both capital and validation for their thesis about inefficiencies in real estate finance and operations.
Rob's background includes founding FiveTen Capital, which acquired and managed 10,000 rental homes, giving him intimate knowledge of pain points across the SFR ecosystem[3]. Gregor co-founded Roofstock in 2015, which has grown into the largest online marketplace for single-family home investment, facilitating nearly $3 billion in transactions[4]. Rather than rest on these successes, the founders recognized that identifying and solving their own operational challenges could be systematized into a broader investment thesis. They formally established 1Sharpe Capital in 2016 to invest across the full spectrum of real estate—from credit strategies to private equity to early-stage property technology—and later formalized the venture division in 2020[3].
1Sharpe Ventures distinguishes itself through a rare combination of deep domain knowledge and hands-on operational support. The team brings decades of entrepreneurship and a track record of founding, incubating, and investing in real estate innovation[3]. Unlike traditional venture firms that may lack sector-specific context, 1Sharpe's partners have served as owners, operators, and lenders, providing them with an edge in recognizing game-changing technology opportunities[3].
The broader 1Sharpe team has invested in credit at institutional powerhouses including Cerberus, Putnam, BlackRock, and Salomon Brothers for decades[3]. This pedigree translates into sophisticated capital structuring capabilities and relationships that allow portfolio companies to access diverse funding sources beyond traditional venture rounds.
The firm's venture investments include Roofstock (the leading residential real estate investment marketplace), Lessen (a repair, maintenance, and renovation fintech platform), and Flock (a platform enabling real estate asset exchanges for shares in managed portfolios)[4]. These companies collectively represent the firm's ability to identify and nurture transformative businesses in overlooked sectors.
1Sharpe Capital maintains UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) signatory status, with 92nd and 89th percentile scores reflecting institutional-grade ESG practices[1]. This commitment extends to 1Sharpe Ventures' investment decisions and operational support.
1Sharpe Ventures sits at the intersection of two powerful macro trends: the maturation of venture capital's traditional focus areas and the technological readiness of legacy industries for disruption. The venture ecosystem has historically concentrated capital in consumer technology, software-as-a-service, and digital platforms—sectors that, while important, represent a narrow slice of economic activity. Meanwhile, real estate, construction, insurance, and financial services have remained fragmented, inefficient, and dominated by incumbents with limited incentive to innovate.
The timing for 1Sharpe Ventures' thesis has become particularly acute. Artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, mobile-first design, and modern data analytics have matured to the point where they can address long-standing inefficiencies in these sectors. A landlord managing rental properties, a construction company coordinating subcontractors, or an insurance underwriter assessing risk can now leverage tools that were simply unavailable a decade ago. 1Sharpe Ventures positions itself as the bridge between founders with novel technological ideas and the distribution networks, relationships, and operational expertise required to scale in these traditionally conservative industries[4].
The firm's influence extends beyond individual portfolio company exits. By directing institutional capital toward the "Forgotten 50%," 1Sharpe Ventures is reshaping venture capital's allocation patterns and signaling to other investors that transformative returns may lie in sectors previously dismissed as unsexy or too fragmented for venture-scale returns.
1Sharpe Ventures represents a maturing recognition within venture capital that the highest-impact opportunities often lie in plain sight—in the industries that employ millions, generate trillions in economic value, and have resisted technological transformation precisely because they lack the venture ecosystem's attention. The firm's founders have already proven they can identify, build, and scale businesses in these spaces, and their venture division is now systematizing that capability.
Looking ahead, 1Sharpe Ventures will likely benefit from accelerating AI adoption, regulatory tailwinds favoring fintech and proptech innovation, and growing institutional appetite for venture exposure to non-traditional sectors. The critical variable will be execution: whether the firm can maintain its operational edge as it scales its portfolio, and whether its portfolio companies can achieve the kind of market dominance that justifies venture-scale returns in traditionally fragmented industries.
The broader implication is significant. If 1Sharpe Ventures succeeds in proving that venture capital can generate outsized returns by transforming the "Forgotten 50%," the venture ecosystem's capital allocation patterns could shift meaningfully over the next decade. That shift would represent not just financial opportunity, but a reorientation of innovation toward the sectors that matter most to the real economy.
