Since its founding in 2016, Fifth Wall has been building a new kind of investment firm. We invest differently, focusing on and specializing in the intersection of the built environment and technology. We raise capital differently, assembling a global consortium of the largest owners and operators of real estate alongside leading institutional investors. And we build our firm differently, innovating on and reimagining the traditional venture capital and asset management business models in many ways to grow our highly-differentiated platform.
We are hiring an Associate to join our Climate Technology Investing team in either NY or SF.
About Fifth Wall
Fifth Wall is the world’s largest Venture Capital firm focused on the Built Environment (Real Estate, Development, Construction, and Infrastructure). With over $3.2B under management, it has grown rapidly by bringing together the industry’s largest consortium of owners, operators, and developers. With over 100 corporate partners across more than 15 countries, and a team of 50+, Fifth Wall invests in the leading startups reinventing, accelerating, and decarbonizing the built environment.
About Fifth Wall Climate Tech Fund
The construction and real-estate industries consume ~40% of the world’s raw materials, use ~40% of the world’s energy, and contribute 40% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. To help address this enormous issue, Fifth Wall set up the Climate Tech fund, the largest pool of capital ever brought together to invest in early-to-growth stage companies decarbonizing the built environment. The Climate Tech Fund is currently managed by a team of 9 professionals split between San Francisco and New York.
Fifth Wall Climate Fund Close: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/21/fifth-wall-closes-500-million-climate-fund-to-decarbonize-real-estate.html
Why did Fifth Wall start a Climate Tech fund? https://medium.com/fifth-wall-insights/proptech-modernizing-the-worlds-biggest-industry-a34cf464c1c9
About The Role
Associates in the Climate Tech Team play an essential role in all elements of the team’s work – including building relationships in the ecosystem, sourcing deals, due diligence, financial modeling, preparation of investment committee materials, fundraising support, interactions with strategic and financial LPs, portfolio company engagement, market research and thesis building, and collaboration with other teams at Fifth Wall. Therefore, communication, quantitative skills, relationship building, and maturity and leadership presence are critical.
Fifth Wall is an incredibly dynamic, fast moving firm, and as a result, there are tremendous opportunities for career progression and internal mobility. This environment also requires that associates have a “go-getter” attitude, ability to work independently, and a comfort with rapid pace and change.
Investing in climate technologies and business models requires deep industry expertise and relationships – and a demonstrated experience and interest in climate tech is therefore required for this role.
Ideal Background
- Completed 1-2 year investment banking or management consulting program
- Ideally in one of the following fields: Energy, Cleantech / Clean Energy, ESG, Industrials, Tech, Infrastructure
- 1-2 years of post-analyst experience in either:
- VC/PE/Growth Equity (ideally in related sector)
- Startup with industrial, cleantech, or hardware focus with role in strategy / strategic finance / operations/product development
- Must have some demonstrated interest in clean tech, sustainability, ESG, etc.
- Unique background, point of view, and set of experiences outside of your professional life — we want to build a team with a diverse culture comprised of people from different walks of life
Core Capabilities
- Analytical skills including analyzing and building financial models
- Preparation of high quality presentation materials and written insights
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and manage competing responsibilities and timelines
- Foundational skills are really important to us — but we also value a candidate’s willingness to tirelessly network and cultivate relationships with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and other partners in the climate tech sector to best position themselves to identify potential investment opportunities for the firm
- Authentic passion for helping entrepreneurs solve massive climate tech and sustainability problems
- Ability to be an outward-facing, “customer-ready” member of a team – including interfacing with company CEOs, senior members of industry ecosystem and LPs, and firm management
- Exceptional EQ and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with a diverse set of constituents
- Proactive and entrepreneurial mindset, bias toward action, comfort with ambiguity, and a desire to work in an entrepreneurial, fast-paced, high-growth environment where every week is likely to be different than your last
- For this role, we’re interested in finding a candidate who is currently living in (or willing to relocate to) San Francisco or New York City.
