Note: This post is an excerpt from a larger report being created by Kabri Construction Research. Thanks to ADL Ventures for contributing some of their construction startup data.
Super interesting. Interesting to me that there wasn't any startup funding in the early 2000's boom, prior to the recession. This actually gives me some hope that the new funding is a real shift in potential.
But compared to crypto, it is still frustratingly low. I agree the ADU numbers seem small. (FYI I have seen Boxabl founders tweet that they raised $60 mil. And they just started accepting non-accredited investors.)
This was interesting, and I can appreciate the challenge associated with defining some of these categories. Reading through some of the service descriptions I'm getting memories of the late 90's dot-com craze. My sense is that there isn't much room for disruption on the bricks & mortar front because industry incumbents operate on tight margins already. Software firms probably have the most opportunity because of low overhead and the possibility of getting subscription revenue from construction and A/E firms for a long time---provided their products are effective.
Very interesting data, thank you. Australian 2021 procurement IPO Felix had local start-ups Buildxact, SiteMate, Mastt, Portt and VenderPanel with competing platforms. In the UK Pagabo launched a procurement platform in 2021, mainly for the public sector, using framework agreements for building work valued between £250k to £10m See https://gerard-de-valence.blogspot.com/2021/03/construction-tech-on-move.html.
Good summary, Brian. I might add an investment category of volumetric modular, which is somewhat represented by Blokable, who started out as a more agnostic modular construction solution, then pivoted to developing. I'm thinking FullStack Modular, BoxHaus (YC), Connect Homes, Kasita, and maybe a couple others, all of whom, I believe got to A rounds. But overall, it's indeed a brutal history, a lot of which, as you allude, being driven by unrealistic venture expectations. I'd add startup hubris as a contributing factor, with a lot of well-funded founders coming out of incubators,, believing the TC articles about the construction tech revolution, wholly unaware of the smell of their own sh#t. In every case, that hubris is vanquished when they try to build something and are stopped by rinky-dink local real estate forces, which are backed by billions of patient, low-expectation dollars.
Thanks for the info! Briq, Rhumbix, Cofi, Foresight, Agorus, Toggle, Modulous, and Hyperframe are all in the list (though Hyperframe doesn't appear to have any public funding information available so it wouldn't show up in investor counts, and we erroneously omitted Blackhorn as an investor from Foresight.) Safehub and Alpha Ledger we opted not to include as construction startups. Drawboard we missed.
I've updated the dataset, and will update the post later to reflect the updated company counts.
Super interesting. Interesting to me that there wasn't any startup funding in the early 2000's boom, prior to the recession. This actually gives me some hope that the new funding is a real shift in potential.
But compared to crypto, it is still frustratingly low. I agree the ADU numbers seem small. (FYI I have seen Boxabl founders tweet that they raised $60 mil. And they just started accepting non-accredited investors.)
This was interesting, and I can appreciate the challenge associated with defining some of these categories. Reading through some of the service descriptions I'm getting memories of the late 90's dot-com craze. My sense is that there isn't much room for disruption on the bricks & mortar front because industry incumbents operate on tight margins already. Software firms probably have the most opportunity because of low overhead and the possibility of getting subscription revenue from construction and A/E firms for a long time---provided their products are effective.
Very interesting data, thank you. Australian 2021 procurement IPO Felix had local start-ups Buildxact, SiteMate, Mastt, Portt and VenderPanel with competing platforms. In the UK Pagabo launched a procurement platform in 2021, mainly for the public sector, using framework agreements for building work valued between £250k to £10m See https://gerard-de-valence.blogspot.com/2021/03/construction-tech-on-move.html.
Good summary, Brian. I might add an investment category of volumetric modular, which is somewhat represented by Blokable, who started out as a more agnostic modular construction solution, then pivoted to developing. I'm thinking FullStack Modular, BoxHaus (YC), Connect Homes, Kasita, and maybe a couple others, all of whom, I believe got to A rounds. But overall, it's indeed a brutal history, a lot of which, as you allude, being driven by unrealistic venture expectations. I'd add startup hubris as a contributing factor, with a lot of well-funded founders coming out of incubators,, believing the TC articles about the construction tech revolution, wholly unaware of the smell of their own sh#t. In every case, that hubris is vanquished when they try to build something and are stopped by rinky-dink local real estate forces, which are backed by billions of patient, low-expectation dollars.
Hi Ray-
Thanks for the info! Briq, Rhumbix, Cofi, Foresight, Agorus, Toggle, Modulous, and Hyperframe are all in the list (though Hyperframe doesn't appear to have any public funding information available so it wouldn't show up in investor counts, and we erroneously omitted Blackhorn as an investor from Foresight.) Safehub and Alpha Ledger we opted not to include as construction startups. Drawboard we missed.
I've updated the dataset, and will update the post later to reflect the updated company counts.