Buildots, the AI construction tech company, has announced a $30m (£21.5m) Series B investment round.
Led by Lightspeed Ventures it also has the participation of Buildots’ previous investors: TLV Partners, Future Energy Ventures, and Tidhar Construction Group.
Set up three years ago, Buildots’ technology allows companies to check images captured by hard hat-mounted 360° cameras against original design, scheduling and the reality on the construction site. This information can then be used by project managers on site to make better decisions about the project.
Buildots will use the new funds to double the size of its global team with a focus on sales and research and development.
Whereas sectors like manufacturing have increased profitability, construction has increased productivity by just 1% in the past 20 years, and operational profitability by 5%.
Buildots co-founder and CEO, Roy Danon, said: “When it comes to digital transformation, construction has been a sleeping giant and covid-19 served as an accelerator for the industry.
“We are now working with construction companies in over a dozen countries and what we’re seeing is that the challenges Buildots is addressing are ubiquitous around the world.
“A global expansion at the rate we’ve experienced would have ordinarily been impossible in an industry like construction that has its roots in handshake deals and in-person relationships without the new covid reality of remote meetings and even deal signings.”
Danon said there were already “major” building projects in the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Hong Kong and elsewhere using Buildots’ AI tech. Firms using the tech include Build Group in California and Washington state, and MBN in Germany.
