Last Week in ConTech - 12 February 2024
The Energy transition is an infrastructure transition.
In this issue there are:
17 Startup Fundings
7 Policy and Regulatory Changes
1 New investment funds
6 Acquisitions
11 News articles
Reading time: 10mins
Note: This issue may appear truncated in your inbox due to the length, click here to view online.
Startup Funding
Building Decarbonization
Myrspoven, a Stockholm startup, raised €5.4m in funding. They provide buildings with AI software to optimize their energy usage. More here.
[Hiring - 4 roles in Software, 1 role in Sales]
Rheia, an Arizonan startup, raised $779k in funding. They have developed an easy to install HVAC solution optimizing for cost, efficiency and comfort. More here.
Water
Agrow Analytics, a Spanish startup, raised €650k in seed funding. They provide smart irrigation solutions unifying data to specify the time, place and amount of water to use. More here.
Note:
This is an agriculture/farming yield solution which has applications for construction.
With the rising water restrictions, local governments need cost effective methods to irrigate green spaces such as natural sports fields and parks.
Smart irrigation solutions will see a rise of interest due to this.
Payments
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]
Logistics & Supply Chain
BOX ID, a Munich startup, raised €3.5m in funding. They have designed networked tracking sensors to create a digital image of an entire supply chain. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Marketing, 1 role in Support, 1 role in Other]
Note:
Having accurate information on where your materials are and when they will come to site is important for progress planning (building ‘lookahead’ plans).
Logistics solutions provide site engineers with the ability to ensure materials do not idle on site (reducing warehousing cost), will arrive on time (maintain schedule) and assist with the use of off-site warehousing.
Sensos, an Israeli startup, raised $20m in funding. They provide real time tracking and monitoring of shipments via a globally connected label allowing data to be collected about transportation and storage. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Software, 1 role in Operations, 1 role in Product]
Risk & Insurance
Shepherd, a San Francisco startup, raised $13.5m in Series A funding. They use technology to accelerate the underwriting process and assist construction businesses with managing risk to lower insurance costs by providing back office management, compliance tracking and risk management tools available to policyholders at no charge. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Software, 1 role in Operations, 1 role in Design, 3 roles in Other]
Note:
Shepherd runs a marketplace where they use their expertise in construction risk management to source the best software solutions used by clients.
Customers can activate preferred partner benefits for these solutions.
Related:
An interesting opportunity would be if construction tech solutions could be classed as ‘risk mitigators’ using data from projects they have been deployed on.
Then insurance underwriters could reduce premiums based on the adoption of a solution and its deployment on site.
For example, if a Computer Vision based safety detection tool has been known to reduce in workplace injury claims by 15% by proactively identifying potential incidents - then contractors who use this solution should have their insurance premiums reduced (this may already be occurring).
Weather
Jua, a Swiss startup, raised $16m in seed funding. They use AI to predict weather and climate patterns. More here.
[Hiring - 5 roles in Software, 1 role in Product, 2 roles in Sales]
Note:
Accurate weather prediction can assist with the tendering and bidding process by accurately accounting for ‘rain days’.
A number of larger players are working on AI solutions for weather forecasting including NVIDIA’s FourCastNet and Google’s DeepMind division solution - GraphCast.
Services
Attentive.ai, a Delaware startup, raised $7m in Series A funding. They are building an end to end software for landscaping and construction services including automating sales processes and developing an auto-measure capability which uses computer vision and AI to determine quantity estimates from PDF blueprints or from a Google Maps-like interface. More here.
[Hiring - 2 roles in Software, 3 roles in Marketing, 2 roles in Sales, 3 roles in Other]
Space Construction
Interlune, a Colorado startup, raised $15.5m in funding. They aim to be the first company to harvest natural resources from the moon to use on Earth, building a novel approach to extract resources efficiently, cost effectively and responsibility creating a sustainable space economy. More here.
Notes:
The priority of NASA’s Artemis program is to reestablish human presence on the moon.
This includes building a long term human outpost - a construction problem and the current frontier for civil engineering design (and my favorite part of Construction Tech!).
Investment is being placed in startups which provide the ability to generate materials locally (on the moon) to build roads, produce breathable air or make rocket propellants.
Materials
Magrathea Metals, a San Francisco startup, received $19.6m from the Department of Defence. They make structural metal - carbon neutral light magnesium and other metals from sea water and brines. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Finance, 1 role in Operations, 10 roles in Other]
Note:
The production of steel and aluminum emits 10% of global carbon emissions.
Magnesium is referred to as the ‘gateway metal’ as it is used in the production of all other structural metals. It is used for desulfurization in steelmaking and used in most aluminum alloys.
Virtual Reality
Polycam, a Californian startup, raised $18m in Series A funding. They let users capture the world in 3D offering a LiDAR & 3D Scanner for iPhone & Android including an ‘Extend Tool’ to scan multi story buildings on construction sites. More here.
[Hiring - 4 roles in Software]
Smart Cities
Project 3 Mobility, a Croatian startup, raised €100m in Series A funding. They are developing their own autonomous electric robotaxi as well as the specialized infrastructure to support it. More here.
Power Infrastructure
Volta Insite, a North Carolina startup, raised $7m in funding. They monitor electrical assets for quality monitoring and to provide predictive maintenance solutions. More here.
Synaptec, a Scottish startup, raised £6.5m in funding. They develop electrical sensing technology for power systems which can be used to automate infrastructure inspections, provide early warning, characterisation and location of failures. More here.
[Hiring - 2 roles in Other]
Telemattica, an Australian startup, raised $120k in funding. They provide real time data on critical infrastructure to improve reliability, reduce costs and enhance safety including providing overhead wiring monitoring for railway infrastructure providers and operators. More here.
Computer Vision
Synthetaic, a Wisconsin startup, raised $15m in Series B funding. They develop Rapid Automatic Image Categorization to identify images or objects from data sources such as satellites, video, drones or infrared. More here.
[Hiring - 3 roles in Sales, 4 roles in Other]
Regulatory and Policy Changes
US Sets Rules to Make Gas and Electric Stoves More Efficient
The Biden administration has finalized first-of-their-kind rules for kitchen stoves.
The standards set energy use limits for gas and electric appliances.
The main target of the standard is electric stoves to ensure they use at least 30% less energy than the lowest performing models today.
They stop short of banning gas stoves with 97% of gas models on the market meeting standards.
OCED Selects Four Projects Advance Technologies to Reduce Harmful Carbon Dioxide Emissions
The DOE announced $304m in grant funding for four pilot projects.
These will demonstrate carbon capture on power sector and industrial sites.
Note:
The Energy transition is an infrastructure transition with carbon capture technology and infrastructure receiving increasing funding.
There is an opportunity for contractors to specialize in the deployment of these solutions by building the pilot projects.
Successful results will result in carbon capture technology being deployed throughout the US.
SUVs in the dock for Paris voters on Sunday
In a referendum, Parisians decided to tax large vehicles by increasing their parking costs.
Fees for these vehicles will triple in parts of the city.
Large vehicles are diesel, petrol and hybrid cars heavier than 1.6 tonnes and all electric vehicles above two tonnes.
Mississippi counties, cities could receive authority over state building permit codes
The Mississippi House of Representatives passed House Bill 331.
This bill could remove state regulations for counties and cities on building permit process and laws
The bill would allow local governments to remove licensing requirements from contractors also seeking to obtain those permits, as well as remove certain permits from being necessary.
The main purpose of the bill is to give those county and city governments more legislative independence on construction laws and building codes.
Europe calls for swift reduction of fossil fuels, despite ‘greenlash’
On the 6th of February the European Union called for cutting climate emissions 90 percent by 2040.
If the recommendation is enacted, Europe would need to overhaul how people move and get their food.
Fossil fuel consumption would reduce 80 percent compared with the 2021 level, with coal completely phased out.
Investments would be made in technologies that can capture and store carbon emissions.
Further details here.
New LED and lighting controls guidance for federal buildings issued by GSA
Lighting accounts for 10% to 25% of a building’s electricity consumption and lighting controls can generate up to 80% in energy savings.
The guidance provides best practices for federal agencies to procure and use more cost effective and energy-efficient lighting systems.
The guidance can be found here.
EU agrees ‘historic’ ESG regulatory deal
All major EU based ESG rating agencies will need to be authorized and supervised by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
Rating agencies are required to disaggregate environmental, social and governance criteria into three separate components.
New Funds
Innovation Endeavours, a New York Venture firm, raised $630m for their new fund focusing on climate, engineering and supply chain technology. More here.
Acquisitions
CBRE, a commercial real estate firm, has agreed to acquire J&J Worldwide Services, a provider of engineering, healthcare, and mission support solutions, for ~$1.05b. More here.
Note:
This allows the CBRE to expand its government client base.
Holcim, a Swiss multinational company which manufactures building materials, acquired ZinCo, a German provider of green and solar roofing systems. More here.
Note:
This continues Holcim’s recent acquisition ‘spree’ in their pursuit of green growth. See this issue for other acquisitions.
Autodesk, an AEC software corporation, is acquiring the PIX business of X2X. More here.
Notes:
PIX is a product management solution providing secure review and content collaboration between creatives and executives during the production process.
This will support Autodesk’s aim to connect pre and post production data for customers through Flow.
Consunji (DMCI), a Phillipino construction company, is in talks to acquire CEMEX Philippines for ~$715m. More here.
Barratt, Britain’s largest homebuilder, agreed to buy rival Redrow for ~$3.2b. More here.
Georgia Metals, a metal fabricator, acquired Watson Metals, a Tennessee provider of metal roofing, pole barns and pre-engineered steel buildings. More here.
News
2024 Contech Investment Climate Survey (Zacau Ventures)
Zacau Ventures conducts an Annual Contech Investment Climate Survey with input from 114 VC and CVC firms who have ConTech as a major area of investment.
Key Highlights:
Over 50% of respondents intend on increasing investments in areas of AI and Sustainability.
Team and differentiation are the biggest investment criterias in early stages, compared to traction and then team for series A.
The US continues to represent 50% of ConTech investments. Zacau expects that the growth rate in new investments will be higher in developing economies, particularly Asia (India & SE Asia in particular), Middle East and LatAm.
Corporate Venture Capital firms are expected to become more active in the investment landscape and this may result in tailwinds in the market particularly in deep tech (robotics, new materials, industrial tech).
Lendlease steps back from US construction segments (The Australian, paywall)
Why we invested in Phaidra (GS Futures)
India's electric vehicle boom stalls over charging challenges
Limited electric infrastructure is a major hurdle for adoption.
India has only 11,000 charging stations nationwide.
Related:
In this issue we covered - BluSmart, an Indian startup which raised $24m in funding. They are building and developing large scale electric vehicle (EV) charging hubs to increase EV adoption and expand their EV ride hailing service in India.
China challenges the west for driverless car supremacy
In China autonomous vehicles are to be remotely monitored by a human sitting in an arcade-like driving station.
Companies are able to tap into cities' networks of roadside cameras, traffic lights and inner-city infrastructure. Combined with widespread 5G and digital mapping, industry confidence is rising.
The scale of commercial trials means that key technologies are expected to be commercially viable by 2027.
Federal Swings in Water Regulations Dramatically Changed Policy for Energy Projects
Barcelona declares drought emergency, with big fines for breaking water rules
Activities such as washing a car or watering a garden will result in a fine.
Transit Desperately Needs Innovation. Why Pick on Microtransit? (Bloomberg)
Why is it So Hard (and Expensive) to Build Anything? (
)“During the past century, we have created an approach to delivering capital projects that is built to fail. The more we implement elements of the current approach, the worse project outcomes become. Only through resolving this “gap” will we be able to solve the project performance challenge.” - Todd Zabelle
Is building an ecosystem the way forward for construction tech startups in LatAm? (TechCrunch)
BIM Busters - A BIM coordinator coordinates the project (
)If I missed anything this week, please reply and let me know! I’ll make sure to include it next week.