Last Week in ConTech - 16 October 2023
Autonomous cranes, trucks and bulldozers
ConTech Roundup - Startup funding & news and acquisitions that was important this week in Construction Technology. No fluff. No hype.
Last Week in ConTech - 16 October 2023
Startup Funding
Building Decarbonization
VARM, a Berlin startup, raised $7m in pre-seed funding. They are building an insulation solution to drive household decarbonization. More here.
1KOMMA5°, a Hamburg, Germany startup, raised additional funding (undisclosed). They operate a smart energy solutions marketplace. More here.
Bedrock Energy, an Austin startup, raised $8.5m in seed funding. They design, construct and deliver geothermal heating and cooling systems for building decarbonization. More here.
Design
CLT Toolbox, an Australian startup, raised A$1.5m in seed funding. They are building a structural design platform for mass timber. More here.
Zenerate, a South Korean startup, raised $100k in funding. They are developing a feasibility and generative building design platform using AI. More here.
Infrared City, a Austrian startup, raised €1m in pre-seed funding. They are building a climate simulation platform to calculate the climate effect for architectural and engineering projects. More here.
Smart Cities
Kinetic Automation, a Californian startup, raised $10m in Series A funding. They are building a network of robot equipped service stations to service EVs. More here.
Note: As we move towards wide scale adoption of autonomous vehicles, infrastructure such as support facilities and staging areas - facilities which support operation of autonomous vehicle fleets ie. automated charging infrastructure or cabin cleaning robots will become increasingly important.
Glydways, a San Francisco startup, raised $56m in Series B funding. They develop on demand Personal Rapid Transit and urban mobility solutions. More here.
Construction Robotics
Formant, a San Francisco startup, raised $21m in funding. They are building a robotics data collection and assessment platform which helps companies manage, scale and operate their robotics fleets. More here.
Materials
BioTwin, a British startup, raised £175K in pre-seed funding. They are developing sustainable construction materials. More here.
Inspections
Thread, a North Dakota startup, raised $15m in Series A funding. They are building a platform to autonomously collect inspection data for utilities. More here.
Construction
isBIM, a Hong Kong startup, raised $5.9m in funding. They are building a SaaS platform using AI and digital twins to increase the operational efficiency of construction projects. More here.
Infrastructure
Electric Hydrogen, a Massachusetts startup, raised $380m in Series C funding. They manufacture electrolyzers for green hydrogen including a 1.2GW factory. More here.
Other
Vibrant Planet, a Nevada startup, raised $15m in Series A funding. They are building a Land Tender platform which uses AI to plan and monitor ecosystem restoration and wildfire risk mitigation projects. More here.
Propify, a Boston startup, raised $3.3m in seed funding. They are making a unified API for property management software. More here.
New Funds & Acquisitions
Kingspan, an Irish Building Materials firm backs covolve, an Irish venture fund aiming to digitize the construction industry with €20 million. More here.
Gryphon Investors acquires AirX Climate Solutions, a HVAC specialist. This is their fourth investment in the HVAC value chain since 2020. More here.
News
Teleo, an autonomous heavy equipment startup has announced that Tomahawk Construction in Florida will be the first customer to deploy their autonomous capabilities on an active job site. More here.
Cementing your lead: The cement industry in the net-zero transition (McKinsey)
Construction sites feel emptier, but is bleeding-edge tech the solution? (TechCrunch, paywall)
Why does retrofitting buildings matter?
There are two kinds of retrofits:
Energy retrofits
Installing decarbonization solutions such as batteries, heat pumps etc. These reduce the reliance on fossil fuel.Building efficiency upgrades
This involves improving building infrastructure such as smart windows or insulation for heat control.
Back with AEC_VC. This week: The state of Constru-Tech in Q4-2023.
Positive results from first phase of graphene-enhanced cement trials
Hydro Dams Are Struggling to Handle the World’s Intensifying Weather (WIRED)
And one more…
This meme I found this week on
newsletter Construction Yeti made me chuckle. Highly recommend subscribing to his newsletter if you haven’t already.
For me its those terribly great 7-Eleven sausage rolls after a freezing cold night shift.
If I missed anything this week, please reply and let me know! I’ll make sure to include it next week