Last Week in ConTech - 11 March 2024
Is the US running out of power? Concerns over Generative AI energy use.
In this issue there are:
14 Startup Fundings
9 Policy and Regulatory Changes
1 New investment funds
5 Acquisitions
10 News articles
Reading time: 12 mins
If you have any feedback or tips on information I should include in the newsletter, please provide it in this form.
Startup Funding
Material Procurement
BRKZ, a Saudi Arabian startup, raised $8m in Series A funding. They simplify the process of procuring building materials and equipment for constructors and manufacturers. More here.
Safety
Safety Radar, an Oklahoma startup, raised $1.5m in Seed funding. They are developing a risk management and mitigation platform to identify and address potential risks to prevent job site accidents. More here.
Payments
Buildnow, a Saudi Arabian startup, raised $6.5m in Seed funding. They offer a digital Buy Now Pay Later platform for construction materials which bridges cash flow gaps, offers tailored credit terms and upfront payments to SME suppliers. More here.
[Hiring - 2 roles in Software]
Handle.com, a San Francisco startup, raised investment (undisclosed). They provide a construction payments and credit solutions platform. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Software]
Notes:
Handle.com was featured in the Week of 12 February issue as they raised from Suffolk Technologies.
This announcement states they have now received an investment from Amex Ventures.
Contractor Management
PayShepherd, a Canadian startup, raised $5.2m in Seed+ funding. They offer a contractor management solution that centralizes and verifies submissions related to labor, equipment, and materials for heavy industrial sites. It reports costs in real-time and automates contractor compliance by monitoring performance and streamlining processes from work validation to payments. More here.
[Hiring - 2 roles in Support, 1 role in Marketing]
Ontraccr, a Canadian startup, raised $1.2m in Seed funding. They provide construction management and process automation software. More here.
Asset Management
Esper, an Australian startup, raised $1m in funding. They are launching a satellite to provide lower cost hyperspectral imaging of Earth which has applications for environmental monitoring, mining and agriculture. More here.
Notes:
Hyperspectral imaging allows for the identification of the spectral signature of objects, enabling the detection of the chemical fingerprint of various substances like minerals, chemicals, gasses, and vegetation.
A study has shown with proper post-processing of data, hyperspectral imaging can automatically and reliably detect weak from strong hardened concrete and normally fired bricks without any destructive testing or direct contact with the materials.
This will help civil engineers and developers assess the integrity of materials including the preservation and restoration of historic structures and asset management.
While this version of the satellite technology is unlikely to have the resolution to provide these services, the commercialisation of low cost hyperspectral imaging is an exciting development for infrastructure asset management and remote sensing.
Energy Infrastructure
Plexigrid, a Swedish startup, raised €6.5m in funding (€2.5m of which is grants). They provide an electricity grid orchestration platform allowing operators to coordinate flexible devices in real time. More here.
Notes:
Traditional electricity grids were designed over 100 years ago for a centralized energy system based on power plants.
As we transition to renewable energy sources like solar and wind, a major issue is their intermittent nature - we cannot simply ramp up solar during peak demand periods like we could with fossil fuel plants.
Renewable infrastructure is also highly decentralized with local/community energy assets like home battery storage and rooftop solar panels.
If these distributed residential assets could be pooled together as part of the grid, they offer the potential to supplement grid power during peak times and provide excess storage when generation is high.
Software that enables coordinating and orchestrating these decentralized energy resources as part of the overall grid is an emerging concept called ‘Grid Orchestration’.
Related:
See this issue (under Grid Infrastructure) for a breakdown of Virtual Power Plants.
Hepta Airborne, an Estonian startup, raised investment (undisclosed). They provide end to end inspection, power line monitoring and defect detection solutions. More here.
Renewables
Insolare, an Indian startup, raised $8m in funding. They aim to become a technology driven solution provider offering engineering, procurement and construction services for the renewable energy sector with a focus on solar. More here.
[Hiring - 2 roles in Operations]
Mobility
Ubirider, a Portuguese startup, raised $1.95m in Seed funding. They provide a digital mobility as a service platform for transportation providers helping travelers determine the best option for each journey and allowing open loop ticketing (use of contactless bank cards or smartphone wallets) by providers and cities. More here.
Charging Infrastructure
PowerDot, a Portuguese startup, raised $108m. They bring charging solutions to commercial and retail spaces by offering a turnkey solution to partners and installing, operating and maintaining charging infrastructure at zero cost with revenue sharing agreements. More here.
[Hiring - 8 roles in Operations, 1 role in Software, 2 roles in Marketing, 2 roles in Support, 4 roles in Finance, 1 role in Product, 2 roles in Sales]
Note:
PowerDot partners with commercial property owners such as supermarkets, shopping malls, restaurants, specialized stores and hotels to offer charging infrastructure on their premises.
The thesis appears to be that consumer behavior around vehicle charging will be different to petrol refueling due to the charging time (~10-30 mins to full charge vs time to fill a tank).
During this time consumers are idle and they believe they will be unwilling to wait in a service station (which has limited amenities).
Instead, consumers will prefer to charge their EVs while engaging in other activities like shopping, dining at restaurants, etc. - integrating charging into their existing daily routines
Rather than acquiring real estate to build dedicated charging stations akin to gas stations, PowerDot's go-to-market strategy is to partner with existing commercial properties and install charging infrastructure at those venues.
Regulatory Compliance
HData, an Alabama startup, raised $10m in Series A funding. They provide a platform designed to simplify regulatory compliance and automate access to and analysis of regulatory data for electric, oil and gas companies. More here.
[Hiring - 2 roles in Software, 1 role in Product]
Notes:
HData’s platform provides analysis on energy data and plant efficiency by analyzing data from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) form submittals.
This data provides information on FERC regulated utilities and can be used by energy operators for benchmarking and insights.
Two example use cases of their software are:
Receive a comparative snapshot of electric generation plants, assessing financial efficiency from the FERC Form 1 tied with operational data from the EIA Form 860.
Assess the operations and maintenance costs of all FERC-regulated electric utilities. Includes high-level analysis with industry-standard KPIs and the ability to dive into the granular data and visually compare line items against other utilities.
These insights can be used by contractors/consultants to identify underperforming utilities and target them for infrastructure upgrades.
Infrastructure Startups focused on the energy sector can use this platform to identify utilities which will benefit the most from their solutions.
(Note: It is unclear from their software if the data can be drilled down all the way to a utility level)
Other
Cogna, a London startup, raised £3.8m in funding. They provide software development as a product using AI for the physical industry. The solution allows the integration of data across business areas and provides domain experts with the ability to create their own customized software tools instead of needing to hire/utilize external developers. More here.
[Hiring - 2 roles in Software, 1 role in Design]
Notes:
The traditional approach to software development has been to bring in consultants or buy off the shelf software.
Industries like civil engineering and manufacturing face challenges with traditional software due to their highly heterogeneous problems and diverse, specific processes that require adaptability.
This software as a product platform lowers the cost of development.
It allows domain experts to interact directly with the platform to develop applications tailored to their niche and focused problems, which is more cost-effective than the traditional approach.
The traditional process requires justifying development costs with business cases at a broader business line or regional level, whereas the platform enables more targeted solutions.
The solution is initially focusing on verticals like procurement, planning, and physical asset management.
Policy and Regulatory Changes
Building energy code revamps can get another $90M from DOE
The Department of Energy has announced $90m in funding to help states and localities adopt and implement building energy codes including training and technical assistance.
These set the energy efficiency standards for new buildings, additions and major renovations in residential and commercial buildings.
The funding is to be focused on states with heavy construction activity (high volume of construction).
Generative AI’s environmental costs are soaring — and mostly secret
The artificial intelligence (AI) industry is heading for an energy crisis.
One assessment suggests that ChatGPT is consuming the energy of 33,000 homes.
Additionally, these systems require fresh water to cool their processors - Google and Microsoft had spikes in water use of 20% and 34% respectively in one year (coinciding with Bard and Copilot).
In the US, the legislation - Artificial Intelligence Environmental Impacts Act of 2024 has been introduced to the floor which seeks to establish standards for assessing AI environmental impact.
Related:
Data Centre design and efficiency startups are receiving increasing investment.
In the last 2 weeks, two ConTech focused Venture firms (Zacua Ventures and GS Futures) have announced investments in this space (Flexnode and Phaidra respectively).
The Indian government is set to expedite the detailed project reports (DPRs) for approximately 10,000 km of highways.
The move aims to quicken the award and construction of projects worth over ₹2 trillion.
This is facilitated via the PM Gati Shakti platform, which is a plan to bring all relevant ministries and departments of Government of India together and create a digital platform for more holistic and integrated planning of projects.
This approach has reduced the time to complete DPRs for highway projects from 6 months to 15 days in some cases.
Biden ‘direct pay’ rules may change the future of renewables
The Biden Administration finalized tax rules to give nonprofits such as schools and local governments federal cash to build and operate low carbon energy projects.
Nonprofits, which do not have to pay taxes, have been unable to take advantage of provisions in the tax code that have supported decarbonization.
The ‘direct pay’ rules mean that nonprofits which build low carbon projects like solar or wind farms can get paid up to 30% of the value of the project.
House approves bipartisan bill aimed at bolstering nuclear energy (US)
The House approved the Atomic Energy Advancement Act.
The legislation aims to bolster US nuclear energy production by speeding up environment reviews for new nuclear reactors and reducing fees that applicants for licenses must pay.
It also would extend a law which limits the industry’s legal liability for nuclear accidents by 40 years.
Google has filed a patent to monitor the head movements of remote operators
The patent relates to monitoring the head movements of drivers whose task is to supervise a vehicle operating in autonomous driving mode.
It involves using sensors (e.g. cameras) to capture data on the head movements of the driver responsible for monitoring the autonomous vehicle and intervening if necessary.
In one example, a camera captures video footage over time to analyze the driver's head movements using a model.
The video analysis aims to determine if the driver is engaged in monitoring the autonomous driving and whether an intervention response is required.
Notes:
Autonomous vehicles will likely be present on construction sites in the future.
This patent addresses a safety risk by ensuring drivers remain engaged with supervising autonomous vehicles and determining if intervention is required.
Solutions pioneered by the autonomous vehicle industry, like this head movement monitoring system, offer lessons for increasing job site automation safely.
Biden Orders Military to Build Port to Ease Gaza’s Hunger Crisis
The US military will build a temporary port to allow for large scale aid delivery.
The temporary pier will provide capacity equivalent to hundreds of truckloads of assistance each day.
The plan is for control of the port to transition to a commercially operated facility over time.
Notes:
Militaries around the world maintain engineering and construction capabilities to rapidly deploy temporary infrastructure when needed.
This is a crucial capability to support military operations and establish temporary supply chains.
Due to these overlapping requirements, there are strong synergies between construction technology, defence technology, and supply chain/logistics technology solutions.
Bill introduced to reduce carbon emissions from buildings
Rhode Island has introduced legislation to the general assembly which would require large buildings to report their energy usage and emissions.
Approximately 30% of the state’s carbon emissions arise from buildings.
The reporting requirement would apply to:
From next year: Public buildings larger than 25,000 square feet
From 2026: Private buildings greater than 50,000 square feet
From 2027: Private buildings greater than 25,000 square feet.
After 3 years of data collection, building performance standards which set long term and interim energy and emission targets would be required to be created.
By December 31, 2026, the bill would require all electric for new construction with some exceptions for commercial or industrial use.
Missouri doesn’t have a statewide building code. This bill seeks to change that
The Missouri Building Codes Act seeks to establish baseline standards for building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, property maintenance and other activities associated with construction or renovation.
The act would require that the codes are reviewed and updated every 6 years.
The bill would also ensure the statewide codes are reviewed and updated at least every six years.
New Funds
Prudence, a New York based early stage venture firm which invests in tech companies transforming the built world, raised $80m for their new fund. They invest across construction, real estate, infrastructure and climate/energy adaptation. More here.
Acquisitions
Miovision, a Canadian startup which provides intelligent transport solutions, has acquired Traffic Technology Services, a provider of connected vehicle technologies. More here.
JDM Technology Group, a software provider for AEC has acquired Penta Technologies, a construction management software and STRUXI, a construction and labor productivity software. More here.
United Rentals, an industrial equipment and tool rental firm, has agreed to acquire Yak access, a firm which provides temporary mats for surface protection across construction, maintenance, repair and operations. More here.
Notes:
The matting business is expected to grow due to demand in the energy and power markets where mats are used to hold pipes during installation and maintenance.
MiddleGround Capital, a PE firm, acquired IT8, a Spanish engineering services firm offering mechanical, electrical and construction services. More here.
Stengel Hill Architecture, a full service architecture and interior design firm, acquired Smith Consulting Architects, an architectural, engineering and consulting services firm. More here.
News
Improving traffic signal timing with a handful of connected vehicles
Researchers used data from 6% of vehicles on the road to recalibrate traffic signals.
This resulted in a 20-30% decrease in the number of stops at signalized intersections.
Bechtel pledges $7M to combat suicide in construction
One of the world’s biggest cities may be just months away from running out of water
Mexico city is approaching a water crisis.
Around 60% of Mexico City’s water comes from its underground aquifer, but this has been over-extracted.
Major metropolitan areas have reached similarly critical levels in the past (Cape Town - 2017).
Rogue Editors Started a Competing Wikipedia That’s Only About Roads
A group of Wikipedia editors wrote 15,000 articles on US roads and highways.
After a dispute over wikipedia’s rules, the editors took their articles and created a website dedicated to roads.
It’s called AARoads.
Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power (The Washington Post)
Jacobs inaugurates innovation hub in Europe
Ontario’s first all-electric, net-zero speculative industrial building hits market
Intermodal shift to rail could cut LA traffic by 5k journeys a day
Data Center Construction Market Expected to Reach USD 453.5 Billion by 2033
The brick is translucent and thermally insulating allowing sunlight pass through while keeping heat in.
If I missed anything this week, please reply and let me know! I’ll make sure to include it next week.