5 construction technology firms snare funding

As the summer comes to an end, a handful of construction technology firms have completed investment rounds.

Flex

$120 million

Financial services firm Flex raised $120 million in a Series A equity and debt financing round, according to a Sept. 19 press release. The firm raised $20 million in equity capital, led by Tampa, Florida-based Florida Funders. San Francisco-based investment manager CIM will fund up to $100 million through debt financing.

Flex, formerly known as Flexbase, is a firm that caters to business finances, and offers credit card, banking and treasury management services to its customers. 

Mighty Buildings

$52 million

Prefabricated home builder Mighty Buildings raised $52 million in a funding round led by Saudi Arabian venture capital firm Wa’ed Ventures and American investment firm Bold Capital Partners, the company announced on Sept. 12.

Oakland, California-based Mighty Buildings creates prefabricated, modular homes for consumers using 3D printing technology, according to the release. The company has produced over 50 units as of the announcement, and aims to continue its current sustainability trends.

With the funding, Mighty Buildings will accelerate development and scale production of new homes for the U.S. market, and additionally establish manufacturing bases in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Interest in 3D printing has grown in the region, particularly in Dubai, which adopted a comprehensive 3D printing strategy in 2016. By 2030, the city-state expects that 25% of its buildings will be 3D-printed.

Agave

$2.9 million

Construction software interoperability firm Agave raised $2.9 million in a seed funding round with participation from Palo Alto, California-based investment firm Accel and Mountain View, California-based startup accelerator Y Combinator, the company announced in August.

Agave acts as a bridge between different products that a contractor may use on their jobsites — it markets to both software developers and construction pros. On the software end, its API helps developers integrate their products. For contractors, it syncs data across programs, and features an analytics tool, per its website.

With the funding, Agave will hire new engineers and work toward more integrations, according to TechCrunch.

Pirros

$2 million

Pirros, an architecture and engineering technology platform based in Los Angeles, raised $2 million in a seed funding round, the company announced Aug. 31 in a press release sent to Construction Dive. The round was led by San Francisco-based venture capital firms FundersClub, Twenty Two Ventures and Pioneer Fund, along Y Combinator.

The company’s software categorizes and catalogs drawings that AEC pros use on their jobsites, per the release. The drawings are then saved within the platform and indexed, which allows users to search for past plans without having to take the time to file them away.

“Our goal is to make every detail searchable and reusable, so that engineers and architects can focus on improving the quality of their drawings rather than recreating details that already exist deep in their archive server,” said Ari Baranian, co-founder and CEO of Pirros, in the release.

IVO Systems

$1.5 million

Madison, Wisconsin-based construction management software firm IVO Systems raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round, the company announced on Sept. 6. The round was led by Green Bay, Wisconsin-based investment firm TitleTown Tech, a partnership between the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and Microsoft.

IVO Systems produces software that helps contractors with work order management, field access to work assets, and executive report and dashboard functionality, according to its website.

The developer will use the funding to increase its marketing and sales efforts to reach more construction companies, according to the announcement.

Read More