Fifth Wall promotes Sarah Liu to partner

Real estate tech investor Fifth Wall said it has named Sarah Liu as partner, one of nine promotions the firm recently made.

Liu becomes one of four partners on the firm’s real estate technology investment team at Fifth Wall, where she focuses on construction, fintech, insurtech and the residential real estate sectors.

Liu, based in the Los Angeles area, joined Fifth Wall in 2018 from McKinsey and Co in San Francisco. At that time, Fifth Wall was at the tail end of investing from Fund I and is currently investing out of a $500 million second fund raised in 2019. Fifth Wall was founded in 2016.

Liu told Venture Capital Journal she has worn many hats while at the firm, including working with the firm’s LPs and portfolio companies, and as chief of staff, helping with internal operations as the firm scaled. She said she transitioned to a full-time investing role at the end of 2019.

Among the investments she’s worked on at Fifth Wall is Lessen, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based provider of an online property management platform. The company has raised more than $200 million, with Fifth Wall leading its Series A and B rounds.

Liu noted that single-family rentals (SFR) continues to be the hottest area in the sector.

“A lot of institutional capital has poured into and continues to support the asset class,” she said. “So we’re looking at similar plays as Lessen but from other angles that can support SFR that we expect will to continue to grow over the next couple of years.”

The other promotions Fifth Wall recently made are:

• Cedric Char (senior associate, climate tech)
• Virginia Drennen (vice president, value creation)
• Mike Foell (senior finance manager)
• Oliver Harrison (senior associate, Europe)
• Clay MacFarlane (vice president, real estate technology)
• Michael New (principal, capital formation)
• G. M. Nicholas Vik (partner, head of strategy & operations)
• Gaby Yo (vice president, investment team)

Affiliate publication PERE reported in April that Fifth Wall ranks as the largest real estate-focused fund manager in terms of capital raised in the last five years with $1.4 billion. Fifth Wall accounts for a quarter of the private capital raised for direct investments in real estate tech, commonly known as proptech, according to PERE‘s Proptech 20 ranking.

The firm’s latest promotions come amid its fundraising push. Its fundraising activities are undisclosed, but Fifth Wall is reportedly raising a main fund, its third; a growth fund; and a separate climate tech fund.