Last Week in ConTech - 12 August 2024
New label Program to Bolster U.S. Manufacturing of Cleaner Construction Materials
Last Week in ConTech is a summary of the most important construction startup funding, news, policy changes and national project investments in the last 7 days. The goal is to provide decision makers with information on technology solutions and macro-economic trends in construction to help drive innovation in the industry.
In this issue there are:
14 Startup Fundings
10 Policy and Regulatory Changes
5 New National Infrastructure Projects & Priorities
1 New investment funds
1 Acquisitions
9 News articles
77 open jobs - view here
Reading time: 13 mins
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Startup Funding
Green Cement
Cocoon, a UK startup, raised $5.4m in Pre-Seed funding. They convert steel production runoff (slag) into a green alternative for cement. More here.
[View open jobs - 2 roles in Other]
Materials
InventWood, a Maryland startup, raised $8m in funding. They have developed technology which transforms wood into high performance climate resistant building products which are stronger and lighter than steel with higher durability. More here.
Adept Materials, a Massachusetts startup, raised $4m in Seed funding. They have developed a paint and primer system which helps homes control their internal humidity and moisture. More here.
Safety
Trio Mobil, a Georgia startup, raised $26.5m in funding. They make AI and IoT powered safety and efficiency systems for industrial settings such as warehouses and highway operations. More here.
[View open jobs - 3 roles in Sales]
Notes:
While Trio Mobil’s solutions are tailored to industrial settings, their solutions could have applications on a construction site.
For example their crane safety system automatically detects pedestrians and triggers safety measures and features crane warning lights for awareness of proximity to moving plant.
Additionally, their Lone Worker Safety Devices provide tags for real time location, emergency alerts and safety alarms to ensure worker safety.
Asset Management
Datch, a New York startup, raised $15m in Series A funding. They provide voice assistants which use AI to capture and structure data from users in the field which assists with inspections and asset management. More here.
[View open jobs - 3 roles in Sales]
Notes:
Datch’s solution focuses on streamlining the data collection process.
Business customers have unique challenges when using voice assistants such as understanding industry specific jargon, acronyms or syntax.
Their solution is able to parse voice commands in a smartphone such as “Report an issue for the Line 1 Spot Welder. I estimate it will take half a day to fix” (industrial setting example) into actions and automatically writes and reads records from asset management platforms.
Similar solutions which are tailored to the construction environment are valuable due to the prevalence of TLA’s (three letter acronyms) which can vary from region to region or project to project (it can be common for new starters to be provided with a cheat sheet of all the project specific acronyms).
Grid Infrastructure
TS Conductor, a Californian startup, raised $60m in growth funding. They produce high capacity conductors which expand grid capacity and enhance reliability with the option to leverage existing infrastructure. More here.
[View open jobs - 1 role in Sales]
Notes:
A bottleneck for renewable energy generation is the development of new power line infrastructure.
This is as renewable energy generation occurs in disparate parts of the country (vs centralized power plants) which often requires new transmission or upgrades of existing infrastructure.
There are long lead times for this infrastructure with permitting taking up to 4 years (new legislation is aiming to reduce this to 2 years).
Solutions such as TS Conductor allow existing capacity to be maximized with a reduction in permitting related delays.
Real Estate
Placer.ai, a Californian startup, raised $75m in funding. They provide location based analytics such as foot traffic in locations, demographic profiles etc. which are used by real estate companies and governments. More here.
[View open jobs - 3 roles in Sales, 5 roles in Support, 5 roles in Operations, 8 roles in Software, 1 role in Marketing, 2 roles in Design, 1 role in Other]
Notes:
Having accurate foot traffic data and expected growth is a valuable input for design.
This is as the values used will be more accurately (and likely less conservative) reducing over design and therefore cost.
Home Services
Remi, a Utah startup, raised $21m in Series A funding. They have developed a marketplace which connects homeowners and contractors offering instant quotes, guaranteed quality and expedited timelines. More here.
[View open jobs - 2 roles in Product, 2 roles in Operations, 2 roles in Software, 1 role in Support]
Heat Pumps / Building Decarbonization
Cala Systems, a Boston startup, raised $5.6m in Seed funding. They design and build intelligent heat pump water heaters which offer features such as heating water based on the patterns of hot water used in a home to optimize hot water availability during times of high demand and synchronizing water heating with the power output of a home solar system. More here.
Charging Infrastructure
ElectricPe, an Indian startup, raised $8m in Seed funding. Their solution aggregates electric vehicles (EV) charging points allowing users to identify, access and pay for EV charging points regardless of charging type. More here.
[View open jobs - 2 roles in Marketing, 2 roles in Operations, 3 roles in Software, 1 role in Product]
Notes:
A barrier to the adoption of EVs is the availability and reliability of charging infrastructure.
A 2022 study of 657 chargers at 181 non-Tesla charging sites in San Francisco found only 72.5% were capable of delivering a charge of more than 2 minutes.
ElectricPe has recently partnered with Google to enable real-time visibility of charging point availability and status for users across India and to have these features integrated into Google Maps.
3V Infrastructure, a New York startup, raised $40m in funding. They develop and operate Level 2 EV charges in long dwell properties such as housing and hotels eliminating upfront and ongoing costs for owners and managers. More here.
Notes:
3V’s hypothesis is that rather than charging your car at a gas station, EV drivers want to charge their cars as they would their phones - when they are at rest.
Therefore they are seeking to build Level 2 chargers in long dwell locations (which are not single family homes) such as hotels, apartments etc.
Level 3 chargers are fast chargers which charge cars faster than Level 1 or 2 chargers.
PowerDot, a Portuguese startup, raised €165m in funding. 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.
[View open jobs - 3 roles in Sales, 3 roles in Software, 2 roles in Operations, 1 role in Support, 1 role in Other]
Broad AI Solutions (horizontal solutions)
Intelmatix, a Saudi Arabian startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. They are building an AI platform which helps businesses in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) use AI for decision making. Customers include real estate and smart cities applications assisting with site selection and demand forecasting. More here.
[View open jobs - 1 role in Marketing, 4 roles in Sales, 12 roles in Software, 1 role in Design]
Notes:
Intelmatix’s IP is that their AI platform is designed and trained on local datasets which include contexts relating to the MENA region.
This is different to generic AI datasets which are traditionally trained on US datasets making their insights less valuable for businesses in this region.
This brings an interesting opportunity for ‘copycat’ startups which can identify use cases pioneered by foreign startups and offer the same solutions to their region with AI trained on local contexts to provide tailored insights.
Other
DemoSquare, a Swiss startup, raised $1.4m in funding. They have developed AI software which helps companies anticipate and manage political and regulatory changes such as tracking parliamentary procedures and voting which can be valuable for construction companies in the clean energy, building decarbonisation and sustainable material sectors. More here.
Policy and Regulatory Changes
The EPA announced its plan for implementing a new label program to help buyers find and buy cleaner, more climate-friendly construction materials and products.
The program will define what constitutes “clean” construction materials.
It aims to grow the market for lower-carbon construction materials and initially prioritize steel, glass, asphalt and concrete.
The program will be implemented using a phased approach that all material categories will be able to follow at a cadence which aligns with the material’s market maturity and data availability.
The phases are:
Phase I: Data Quality Improvement.
Standardizing and improving the quality of data underlying and provided by EPDs.Phase II: Threshold Setting.
Using robust EPDs, data, and other credible and representative industry benchmarks to determine thresholds for specific material categories and types.
Phase III: Labeling Materials and Products.
Labeling materials and products that meet EPA’s criteria.
Related:
EPA issues $160 million in grants for clean manufacturing of steel, other construction materials
The grants will help businesses develop environmental product declarations (EPDs).
Manchin-Barrasso energy permitting bill advances to full Senate
The bipartisan legislation is aimed at speeding up approvals for new energy projects.
If passed, it is expected to bolster the buildout of both renewable and fossil fuel energy sources.
Additional the legislation will:
Shorten the process to allow federal energy regulators to approve new power lines which would help more renewable energy plug into the nation’s electric grid.
Seek to make it easier to extract oil gas and coal from public lands and to build renewable projects there.
Cut down the amount of time opponents of energy projects have to sue over their approval which can make it difficult for those opposing projects on environmental or other grounds to bring challenges.
South Africa passes its first sweeping climate change law
South Africa is the world's most carbon-intensive major economy and among the top 15 greenhouse gas emitters.
This law will set caps for large emitters and require every town and city to publish an adaptation plan.
Notes:
This could result in increased investment in renewable energy infrastructure.
GSA updates federal building standards in clean energy push
The U.S. General Services Administration has updated its standards for federal buildings.
The P100 Facilities standards sets mandatory design and construction standards and performance criteria for 300,000 federal buildings.
The updated standards include benchmarks for electrification, energy efficiency, water reuse, embodied carbon, grid-interactive efficient buildings, labor practices and construction decarbonization.
Biden admin announces $2.2B in grants to boost US power grid
The funding will be distributed across 18 states.
The project ranges from enhancement to boost existing capacity to building new transmission cables to plug renewable energy into the grid.
The new projects will enable 13 gigawatts of new clean energy resources to be connected to the grid
Related:
Israel mandates rooftop solar on new big buildings, targets 3.5 GW by 2040
The rules apply to all new non-residential buildings with rooftop areas of more than 250 square meters and detached residential buildings with roofs larger than 100 square meters.
US DOE announces $48.6m funding for offshore wind R&D
The funding will support many areas including:
Research and development of floating offshore wind platforms; exploring innovations for fixed-bottom foundations
Improving offshore wildlife protection through new monitoring technologies
Expanding the reach of the domestic supply chain; and others
While the outgoing Biden administration is currently pushing to expand offshore wind, the US is set to miss its 2030 offshore wind capacity target.
FHWA awards over $26.5M in bridge planning grants
The planning grants help states create a pipeline of projects eligible for federal construction dollars.
US expected to propose barring Chinese software in autonomous vehicles
The Biden administration plans to issue a proposed rule that would bar Chinese software in vehicles in the United States with Level 3 automation and above.
This would also have the effect of also banning testing on U.S. roads of autonomous vehicles produced by Chinese companies.
It will also propose barring vehicles with Chinese-developed advanced wireless communications abilities modules from U.S. roads.
Notes:
This likely means that Intelligent Transportation Software solutions which use Chinese software will be banned.
It could also have an effect on the manufacturing and development of vehicle to infrastructure communication devices.
These are required to be installed on infrastructure to support self-driving vehicles and are able to inform of changing traffic conditions such as dynamically updating speed based on weather or crashes etc.
State introduces new rules that would increase building elevations at the shore
The proposal by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is to strengthen resilience to sea-level rise, extreme weather, chronic flooding and other impacts.
Notes:
The regulation affects new developments.
With the increasing concern around climate change and impact / cost on existing infrastructure, similar legislation could occur for developments in coastal areas.
National Infrastructure Projects & Priorities
US
Work Begins On First Generation IV Nuclear Power Plant In US
Kairos Power has started construction on one of the first advanced reactors in the US.
The Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor could be operational in 2027 and is the first to be approved in the US.
It will be built using modular construction techniques with reactor modules fabricated off-site and shipped for assembly.
China began commercial operation of the first Generation IV plant in the world in December 2023.
Related:
India
SMRs feature in Indian budget
The Indian government has announced plans to partner with the private sector to develop small modular reactors.
Nuclear energy is expected to form a "very significant" part of the energy mix for Viksit Bharat, the government's strategy to make India into a completely developed nation by 2047.
The budget allocates a total of INR24,969 crore (USD2.983 billion) to the Department of Atomic Energy.
Rise in Construction Activities to propel India’s Cement Demand by 7-% in FY25
The cement industry is expected to add 35-40m tonnes in capacity with 60-65% concentrated in the eastern and southern regions.
Riding With a Trucker, Witnessing India’s Past and Potential
India has expanded its national highway system with increased investment under the current government adding 17 miles of highway per day and a 60% expansion in size over the last decade.
Despite this India’s logistics sector is facing slow transportation of goods from factory to port due to road hazards and congestion.
This is impacting their ability to boost manufacturing and exports especially as foreign companies are seeking alternatives to China.
India’s logistics efficiency still lags other major Asian economies.
Notes:
To support the development of manufacturing and support the economy, India has to invest further in logistics infrastructure.
China
China’s Cement Boom Is Over. We Can All Breathe Easier
Cement production has been collapsing ever since the real estate bubble popped in 2021
The decline has accelerated this year with first-half output falling 10.8% from a year earlier.
Related:
China’s Abandoned Building Sites Are Killing Oil Demand
In China, the area of buildings that broke ground in the six months through June was the lowest since 2009.
Investment funds
Breakthrough Energy Ventures raised $839m for their third fund which invests in startups developing technologies with the potential to reduce emissions by at least half a gigaton annually. More here.
Notes:
This mandate allows investment in ConTech startups such as material decarbonization solutions (e.g low carbon cement).
Acquisitions
Almaviva, an Italian digital innovation group, is to acquire Iteris, an Austin company which provides a technology ecosystem for smart mobility infrastructure management which helps public transport agencies, municipalities and businesses monitor, visualize and optimize mobility infrastructure. More here.
News
A list of interesting AI - AEC Startups you might not have heard of (
- highly recommend subscribing if you haven’t already)Cutting Carbon: The Supplier’s Guide to a Low-Carbon Future (Pi Labs)
Warehouse Developer Panattoni Plans Data-Center Push, Sparked by AI Boom
The industrial real estate giant plans to develop a gigawatt of data-center capacity
Prologis, the world’s largest industrial real-estate operator, also plans to begin building data centers.
“Every time we convert a warehouse to a data center, we pick up lots of value, like $500 a foot of value” - Proglis Chief Executive.
Do bigger highways actually help reduce traffic?
New construction technology releases: August 2024 (Construction Dive)
Why does building and maintaining highways in the US cost so much?
On a per-mile basis, the U.S. spends three times as much as other upper- and middle-income countries on certain transportation infrastructure.
Two major factors identified were:
Limited capacity of state departments of transportation (DOT). Survey respondents widely agreed that DOTs have become understaffed over time and that reliance on consultants drives up costs.
Limited competition in the market for government construction contracts. Most state DOTs report doing little bidder outreach, and there are fewer construction firms in most states than there were 10 years ago.
In a first, electric Ford F-150 trucks are powering homes in Baltimore
Electric Ford F-150 drivers are getting paid to run their homes from their pickup truck batteries during peak hours to help meet grid demand.
It’s a clean and quiet alternative to a fossil-fueled generator.
Notes:
Pickup trucks are prevalent on construction sites.
These diesel trucks could be replaced with electric and used as backup power generators instead of diesel generators to power equipment on site.
Is California Forever on hold...forever?
The project refers to a group of investors who put $900m towards building an urban utopia from scratch in the Bay Area’s Solano County.
The project had initially operated in secret, buying up 50,000 acres of farmland from unwitting sellers.
ESA’s innovative “space bricks”: paving the way for lunar construction
If I missed anything this week, please reply and let me know! I’ll make sure to include it next week.