Last Week in ConTech - 1 April 2024
Tracking national infrastructure projects
In this issue there are:
16 Startup Fundings
8 Policy and Regulatory Changes
5 New National Infrastructure Projects
1 New investment funds
1 Acquisitions
10 News articles
Reading time: 13 mins
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Based on feedback I have added a new section which tracks national infrastructure projects. The aim is to provide an overview on government infrastructure priorities by noting major project kickoffs.
Startup Funding
Safety
Buddywise, a Swedish startup, raised €3.5m in seed funding. They use machine learning and computer vision connected to existing camera infrastructure to detect real time safety risks in the workplace and then collate this data to help prevent further accidents. More here.
[Hiring - 6 roles in Software, 1 role in Sales]
Construction Robots
Okibo, an Israeli startup, raised $7.85m in funding led by Shadow Ventures. They have built a fully autonomous ‘finishing’ robot for construction focused on painting, drywalling and plastering walls. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Other]
Notes:
As per Shadow Ventures investment note, the single biggest problem in construction is finding reliable skilled labor for a reasonable cost.
Some key data points:In 2024, 500k job openings need to be filled.
As a result of the supply / demand gap labor costs are up 25%.
Despite wage increases, 60% of projects are delayed due to labor constraints.
20% of the current pool of skilled labor is 50 years of age or older (approaching retirement).
Infrastructure Monitoring
Cyvl.ai, a Massachusetts startup, raised $6m in funding. They use sensors, LiDAR, cameras and AI to create digital twins of transportation infrastructure (e.g. roads) for condition tracking, weakness identification and repair prediction. More here.
[Hiring - 3 roles in Software, 1 role in Sales, 1 role in Support, 1 role in Product, 1 role in Operations]
Viam, a New York startup, raised $45m in Series B funding. They provide a platform which simplifies the building, monitoring and data management of smart machines from industrial robots to IoT devices. More here.
[Hiring - 1 roles in Software, 1 role in Sales, 2 role in Marketing, 1 role in Product]
Notes:
Machine data is usually siloed by the manufacturer, format or the platform.
This makes it hard to predict or pinpoint warning signs for damages or outages.
Viam’s solution can be installed on any machine to capture real time and historical data about machine health and performance to forecast when upkeep or repairs are necessary.
A use case is to install the system on critical buildings systems such as heat pumps to predict and proactively resolve issues before they occur.
Building Decarbonization
Fuchs & Eule, a German startup, raised Series A funding (undisclosed). They act as an independent energy renovation advisor for residential buildings and their digital platform creates home digital twins, simulates renovation options, finds funding solutions, generates personalized renovation roadmaps and connects customers with craftsmen. More here.
[Hiring - 4 roles in Software, 2 role in Sales, 1 role in Operations, 1 role in Product]
Notes:
In Germany there are over 16 million homes in need of refurbishment.
This market is often overlooked by large contractors due to the size of each project and the customization requirements vs the commercial market.
This solution is incredibly interesting given the market size and I am interested to see how / if they are able to scale throughout Europe.
Water Kinetics, a Scottish startup, raised £150k in funding. They have developed a pipe-within-a-pipe water recirculation system which saves up to 50% of energy costs through superior temperature retention and reduces installation time by 50% by reducing the amount of pipework fittings, insulation and time and cost of installation. More here.
Notes:
A hot water recirculation system helps move hot water to fixtures quickly without waiting for the water to get hot.
This is different to a traditional system which relies on the natural flow of water through the plumbing system.
In these when a hot water fixture is turned on, cold water is initially present in the hot pipes until displaced by hot water flowing from the water heater.
A recirculation system can reduce water use as between 400 billion and 1.3 trillion gallons of water (or close to 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools) are wasted by households per year while leaving the water on to wait for it to heat up.
Alternative Site Energy Systems
Lhyfe, a French startup, received €149m in Grant funding. They are a supplier of green renewable hydrogen and will use the funding to construct a green hydrogen production plant in France. More here.
[Hiring - 5 roles in Other]
Notes:
Green hydrogen is emerging as an alternative clean power source for construction sites.
A major obstacle hindering widespread adoption is the limited availability of hydrogen equipment and generators on the market.
To address this challenge, Lhyfe has established a marketplace of hydrogen products and services as well as a curated network of suppliers offering hydrogen-powered products, services, and infrastructure for rent or purchase.
This approach streamlines the procurement process and encourages the adoption of hydrogen technology on construction sites by improving access to the necessary resources.
Following a similar model, companies like Skoon have launched rental platforms specifically focused on providing clean energy equipment solutions for construction sites.
As the U.S. The Department of Energy aims to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen production to $1 per kilogram, more rental solutions could emerge offering a way to easily adopt clean energy and equipment on site without large capital outlays.
Supply Chain & Logistics
Iron Sheepdog, a Virginia startup, raised $10m in Series B funding. They provide a technology platform which provides short haul trucking brokers with business tools that dispatch fleets of owned and independent haulers for construction, material and road building projects. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Sales, 1 role in Software, 1 role in Support]
Notes:
In 2023, Iron Sheepdog launched Dirt Hound, a virtual material exchange which is used by contractors when they need construction materials or removal services on a large scale.
The exchange is powered by their core technology platform that supports three key stakeholders in the short haul trucking space: contractors, brokers, and haulers.
The platform assists contractors in efficiently moving and hauling materials, enables brokers to connect with haulers (including tracking trucks and time) and contractors, and provides haulers with an easy-to-use app that helps them accept jobs and get paid online
This integrated platform allows the company to offer transparent and all-inclusive pricing for material hauling and removal services to the market.
Related:
This is a great example of a Trojan Horse Go-To-Market strategy that is used in construction. They had to first develop their core technology offering servicing the industry before having the data / information to launch Dirt Hound.
Highly recommend this read from Alice Leung.“When evaluating startups, I think about what pain point they’re solving, how they are initially tackling it, and what the in between looks like. I love it when the initial product doesn’t look anything like what the end product should be, but the path getting there makes so much sense. That initial product is the Trojan Horse.”
Think Like Odysseus -
Heat Pumps
Airthium, a Parisian startup, raised €3m in funding. They are developing heat pumps to replace gas fired steam boilers which generate 3x more heat with the same amount of electricity. More here.
Evari, a New Hampshire startup, raised $7.5m in Seed funding. They develop heat pump compressors which are more efficient and environmentally friendly. More here.
Grid Infrastructure
Veir, a Boston startup, is raising at least $50m in funding. They replace strained power lines with superconducting electric transmission lines which offer 5-10x the transfer capacity of conventional lines. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Finance, 1 role in Product, 4 roles in Other]
Notes:
As discussed here and here, the power grid is approaching capacity and there are concerns that the US is running out of power.
A contributing factor is the increasing demand for electricity from the growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the electrification of buildings, and the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources.
As a result, technologies that facilitate the expansion of the grid and improve the delivery of power will become increasingly crucial to address this challenge and ensure a reliable and sustainable energy supply.
Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)
PipeDreams, a Californian startup, raised $25.5m in Series A funding. They acquire mom and pop HVAC and plumbing companies and scale them with software to support scheduling and marketing. More here.
[Hiring - 3 roles in Sales, 11 roles in Other]
Notes:
PipeDreams’ model is a twist on the private equity roll up model where they buy small companies in a niche and combine them into a larger business to sell to a large company.
For every company they purchase they intend to keep the brand, employees and name and support and streamline back office operations (there are over 100k HVAC / plumbing businesses in the US).
Water
WASE, a UK startup, raised £8.5m in funding. They have developed a water treatment solution which uses microbes to break down wastewater into biogas. More here.
Training & Education
Mobius Institute, a Florida startup, raised funding (undisclosed). They provide reliability improvement, condition monitoring and precision maintenance education and are seen as an authority in the industrial asset reliability space. More here.
Other
Landerz, a Canadian startup, raised CAD$1.5m in Seed funding. They simplify the land acquisition process by providing buyers with high potential development sites and providing all the critical decision making information such as market data, comparable transactions, development risks and zoning to reduce opportunity analysis time from several weeks to less than an hour. More here.
SP Tech Solutions, a Polish startup, raised €2.78m in funding. They have developed a solution to optimize planning and operational control of rail transport including the searching and booking of traction services such as train technical inspections. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Software]
Regulatory & Policy Changes
White House funds $6B to decarbonize US industrial sector
The Department of Energy announced $6b in funding for 33 projects.
The projects are in 8 high carbon emitting industries including concrete and cement.
Example projects with funding include:
Installing a CO2 capture and storage system at a Heidelberg Materials cement plant in Indiana.
Funding Sublime Systems in building a new low carbon cement plant.
Funding Brimstone in building a commercial-scale plant for producing decarbonized cement.
Google, Microsoft and Nucor will work together to develop new business models and aggregate their demand for advanced clean electricity technologies.
This is designed to accelerate the development of first of a kind projects including advanced nuclear, geothermal, clean hydrogen and long duration energy storage (these will all be first of a kind infrastructure projects).
The aim is to focus on proving out the demand aggregation and procurement model and to provide supply for the forecasted growth of demand due to data centers.
As a first step they have issued a request for information for projects which are seeking offtake agreements.
Pooling demand enables buyers to offtake larger volumes of clean energy reducing project specific development risk.
Related:
US DOT awards $54M in SMART grants to local governments
The funding will be used for projects which improve transportation efficiency and safety and advancing technological projects at State Department of Transports (DoT).
An example project is the Colorado DoT which is creating a digital twin using transportation, land use and infrastructure data to assist with planning and modeling.
The key technology fields for investment are:
Connected vehicles, Delivery/logistics, Sensors, Systems Integration, Coordinated Automation, Innovative Aviation, Smart grid and Traffic signals.
The funding will be used to accelerate deployment of clean energy on current and former mine land.
This initiative is expected to create 3000 jobs.
DOE opens Phase 2 of $250M grant program for net-zero federal buildings
The funding is aimed at supporting federal agencies with implementing net zero buildings.
This phase will provide applicants with assistance in developing a net zero building project focused on overcoming barriers between initial concept and project phases.
Berkley agreed to repeal its ban as part of a settlement with the California Restaurant Association.
This settlement has influenced how energy saving ordinance has been implemented by local municipalities (bans vs performance / emission requirements).
San Francisco officials believe the city may be safe from a lawsuit because of the policy’s focus on building safety and because it allows some restaurants and other businesses in new buildings to opt out of the regulation.
The Building Safety Act - are you ready for 6 April 2024 (and beyond)? (UK)
This article lists the key changes which will take place on 6 April 2024 where deadlines and transitional periods of the Building Safety Act come to an end.
One change is the end of transitional arrangements for higher-risk buildings.
Higher-risk buildings are buildings over 18 meters or seven storeys with two or more residential units or are care homes or hospitals meeting the same height requirements.
These have gateway and stage approvals.
From 6 April 2024, unless the works meet the requirements set out in the regulations and Higher-Risk Regulations they will fall within the new regulatory regime for higher-risk buildings.
More changes were summarized in the 18th December issue.
Lamar Johnson Collaborative launches adaptive reuse scorecard for quick building viability analysis
The scorecard is to help developers in evaluating office and commercial buildings which can be converted to hotels and residences.
It assigns seven categories with a weighted score of 1 to 100. Scores over 70% are considered viable for conversion.
Vacant office to residential conversions are seen as a way to overcome the housing shortage.
National Infrastructure Projects
India begins construction of the world's largest green power plant – 5 times larger than Paris
Construction has begun on the world’s largest solar and wind power plant.
The station construction will take 5 years, provide energy for 16m families and cost $20b.
China Starts $3.9 Billion Power Transmission and Storage Project
The project involves construction of a 1,069-kilometer (664-mile) ultra-high-voltage power line across three provinces.
The power line will be fed by solar and wind power, with coal generators acting as backup
Intel Receives $8.5 Billion in Grants to Build Chip Plants
The Biden Administration announced up to $8.5B in grants to Intel to build or expand chip making facilities in four states, creating 10,000 manufacturing jobs and roughly 20,000 construction jobs.
Israel, Cyprus move forward on construction of underwater electric cable
The countries have agreed to the construction of an underwater electric cable to connect Israel to Cyprus and from there to Greece and the European electricity grid.
European Hyperloop Center opens its doors for first tests
The 420m testing center will help companies advance towards commercialisation of hyperloop designs.
These consist of ultra fast transport capsules which would run on magnetic levitation inside a network of underground tunnels.
New Funds
Silence, a New York venture fund, raised $35m. They invest in early stage climate tech focused startups. More here.
Notes:
Climate Tech increasingly overlaps with construction tech as the energy transition is an infrastructure transition.
They invest in solutions such as building energy optimisation platforms and clean energy installation companies. Additionally, one of the biggest problems in climate tech is the construction labor shortage.
Acquisitions
Home Depot, a home improvement retailer, has agreed to buy SRS Distribution, a building materials supplier, for ~$18.25b. More here.
Related:
Home Depot Is Bulking Up Its Supply Chain to Serve Contractors
They will add four distribution centers to target construction professionals who buy bulky materials such as lumber, insulation and roofing (~$200b market size).
Professional contractors account for ~48% of Home Depot’s customers.
News
NVIDIA Announces Earth Climate Digital Twin
The aim of the project is to improve weather forecasting to help combat extreme weather brought on by climate change.
The Central Weather Administration of Taiwan intends to use the model to predict more precise locations of typhoon landfall for early evacuation and preparation.
Buy American, Build Nothing (WSJ)
The infrastructure law of 2021 expanded Buy America requirements to include products such as glass, lumber and drywall and expanded the definition of infrastructure to include broadband and utilities.
These provisions have been difficult to follow and have hamstrung the completion of key infrastructure projects.
New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It (
)America’s Affordable Housing Crisis (New York Times)
India creates a unique substance to replace the use of sand in construction
South Africa water crisis sees taps run dry across Johannesburg
Why water may be the next big climate tech bet
As the threat of water scarcity increases, water is becoming a tech bet.
An example is water recycling startups such as Hydraloop.
They recycle and reuse water in homes taking gray water (lightly contaminated) from the bath, shower, washing machine or dryer and collects and cleans it to be reused for flushing toilets.
Fully autonomous street crawlers could make potholes thing of the past
How a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet From Hell Slowed Williams’ F1 Cars For Years
Williams, the F1 team, kept inventory and procured materials for their car via one massive spreadsheet which included ~20,000 parts used to make its cars.
The team also reportedly didn't have a central resource that tracked what parts cost, how long they took to make, or even how many they had or where they were stored.
It has been provided as a reason for Williams’ poor performance.
Notes:
This shortcoming crosses over to the construction industry and some project sites.
Material tracking and ordering may be undertaken via a spreadsheet which lacks details on current order status and material location.
Site engineers will spend time calling up suppliers to receive order status or manually verifying delivery on site by taking photos of the delivered materials and making a note as to where it is stored.
What do American households use electricity for? (
)The primary use is for cooling (AC and fans) systems.
If I missed anything this week, please reply and let me know! I’ll make sure to include it next week.