Last Week in ConTech - 18 September 2023
Reinventing Curbs
ConTech Roundup - Startup funding & news and acquisitions that was important this week in Construction Technology. No fluff. No hype.
Last Week in ConTech - 18 September 2023
Startup Funding
Building Decarbonization
Lumen Energy, a San Francisco startup, raised $11m of Series A funding. They are building a clean energy financing platform for commercial building owners. More here.
Viboo, a Swiss startup, raised €1.7m in funding. They are building a Predictive Control as a Service platform (PCaaS) which anticipates building temperature evolution (using factors such as weather forecasts & occupant preferences) and optimizes the temperature in each room. More here.
Q-Bot, a London startup, raised £3.5m in funding. They have a robot which sprays underfloor insulation to reduce energy use. More here.
Workforce Management
Lumber, a Californian startup, raised $5.5m in seed funding. They are building a workforce management platform for construction. More here.
GigBridge, a British startup, raised a pre-seed round. They are building a platform to hire, onboard and pay workers for the construction industry. More here.
Construction
EquipmentShare, a Missouri startup, raised $150m in Series E funding. They provide equipment and digital solutions for construction. More here.
Concrete
C-Crete, a Californian startup, received a $950k grant from the US Department of Energy. They create cement-free concrete. More here.
Infrastructure
Verkor, a French startup, raised €850m in Series C funding and €1.2bn of non-equity financing. They build gigafactories (large-scale manufacturing facilities for batteries). More here.
Asset Management
Site Technologies, a Chicago startup, raised $10m in Series A funding. They use AI and advanced imagery to gather precise and real time property data for asset management and condition monitoring. More here.
3D Printing
Mighty Buildings, a Californian startup, raised $52m. They use 3D printing to create prefab homes. More here.
Acquisitions
Kingspan Group, a global building materials company made an informal approach to combine with Carlisle Companies, a construction materials manufacturer. More here (paywall).
News
Startups Are Inventing Cooling Clothes for a Hotter Future
Techniche’s StayQool suits are used in Qatar to help construction workers stay cool.
Pains and recommendations for M﹠A in Construction-Tech in 2023 and 2024 (Foundamental)
Acquirers are finding that there is a ‘lot of noise’ and a lack of quality companies in the market.
Banker- or brokered deals force strategics to overpay, take on more risk, and close with less diligence.
Strategics prefer early access/heads up to deals. A 6+ months heads up allows them to build relationships with the founders-owners directly making the deals more likely.
Big enterprises mentioned they often struggle undertaking diligence and integrating acquisitions outside their core-core expertise.
A Concrete Crisis Has the UK Literally Crumbling (Wired)
Over 150 schools, colleges, and nurseries in England have been ordered to close parts of their buildings due to the looming threat of collapse due to use of RAAC, a cheap, lightweight concrete.
Related: There's a Lesson in Britain's Crumbling Schools (Bloomberg)
Curb-management innovations: Lessons from smart and zero-emission loading zone pilots
Smart loading zones are designated areas for delivery drivers to load and unload goods and are managed by advanced monitoring systems that allow authorized drivers to reserve a space for a limited amount of time through a smartphone app.
New York City has released their Curb Management Action Plan
Key Points:Smart Curbs Pilot
Select neighborhoods will have curb regulations rethought from scratch to make access easier and mitigate traffic/double parking.Pilot of First Low-Emission Zone
Designation of curb space for passenger pickup/drop offs
Surge in for hire vehicle trips has resulted in competition for curb space and parking violations.Price on street parking to encourage commercial activity
Pricing mechanisms will be developed to reflect market rates and a pilot conducted using demand based real time parking pricing.Charge for non-transportation users of curb space
Framework will be created for street occupancy. An example is allowing restaurants to use roadway at fixed per-square-foot fees.
If I missed anything this week, please reply and let me know! I’ll make sure to include it next week