Wharton Digital Ventures

Wharton Digital Ventures

WHARTON DIGITAL VENTURES is an investment platform formed to exploit opportunities at the crossroads of real estate, private equity, and venture capital related to AI and the attendant technologies as our society moves from an “analog” to “digital” world.

Wharton Digital’s business is anchored in its real estate strategy involving securing land parcels suitable for building data centers and positioning them for development. Once approvals and infrastructure are obtained, we either sell the land or develop through build-to-suits, and JV’s.

We believe that data centers provide a “window into the future” as they portend capacity demands, emerging technologies, and geographical areas with high AI potential. Through this comes insights into data center construction, alternative power, promising operators and service providers, as well as AI hardware and software companies.

Wharton Digital Ventures is positioned to also take advantage of a wide spectrum of private equity, venture capital, and credit opportunities in the middle market that are presented to the firm as younger and more mature companies seek ways to finance their businesses. As such, we are building a cohesive, cross-pollinating investment platform that leverages, deal flow, knowledge and relationships to take advantage of an array of investment possibilities related to data centers/AI.

Additionally, the firm takes advantage of its experience in other real estate sectors, most notably, industrial, to make investments in such areas as automation and robotics.

Dataminr

Dataminr

Dataminr is a big data analytics firm that combs through over 100,000 data sets to provide real-time information to its customers.  Using its proprietary artificial information technology platform, the company performs over one trillion calculations daily analyzing raw data to extract meaningful insights. Major clients of Dataminr include the US Department of Defense where, among other uses, the technology is deployed by soldiers in the field to provide critical alerts. In addition, on the corporate side, firms utilize Dataminr for matters like reputation risk and crisis management.
Based on its belief that the generation of data would be growing exponentially and having the ability to “make sense” of this data in real time would be extraordinarily valuable, Wharton Equity Ventures was one of the largest early investors in Dataminr when its team consisted of 4 people and the firm was valued at approximately $5.5 million.  Today, WEV is among the top 10 largest shareholders in Dataminr which recently closed an equity round of financing at over $4 billion.

Fabric

Fabric

Fabric is a pioneer in the automation of urban warehouses which are critical in meeting the growing demands of consumers seeking same day deliveries. By combining highly efficient fulfillment systems with local last-mile locations, Fabric is redefining how supply chains work. The company has developed its own proprietary AI software and robotic technology and is running micro-fulfillment operations for grocery and general merchandise retailers in New York City, Washington, DC, and Tel Aviv. Fabric maintains partnerships with major retailers and grocers including Walmart, Instacart, FreshDirect and others. As a key piece of its longer term strategy, Fabric is seeking to buildout a “neural network” of automated microfulfillment centers throughout the US to be able to offer a national footprint for customers.

Wharton Digital Ventures was part of a $200 million Series C round that valued the company at approximately $1 billion and which featured other investors such as Temasek, CPP Investments and Koch Disruptive Technologies. Proceeds from the round will be used to assist Fabric in expanding its base of warehouses nationally, adding key executives and further developing its hardware and technologies.

Latch

Latch

Latch is a pioneer in the development of keyless entry systems geared primarily towards multifamily residential properties. Through its sleek design and proprietary operating system, the company has created an entire ecosystem around its operating system, devices and partners such as Google.
Wharton Equity Ventures was an early investor in Latch believing that the company had the potential of transforming an industry that was significantly lagging behind the implementation of technology in its product offerings.
The firm invested at an approximately $20 million valuation and Latch recently announced that it would go public through a SPAC controlled by Tishman Speyer, a major international real estate developer, at a valuation of $1.65 billion.