Last Week in ConTech - 25 December 2023
Merry Christmas!! + A rising wave of city led building decarbonization regulation
A summary of the construction technology (ConTech) startup funding, news, acquisitions, policy and regulatory changes which occurred this week.
Last Week in ConTech - 25 December 2023
In this issue there are:
15 Startup Fundings
6 Policy and Regulatory Changes
1 New investment funds
2 Acquisitions
11 News articles
Reading time: 7m 40s
Startup Funding
Building Decarbonization
Tetra, a Boston startup, raised $10.5m in seed funding. They are building a marketplace to connect home owners with heat pump vendors and contractors and to help with applying for state/federal incentives. More here.
[Hiring - 5 roles in Sales, 1 role in Software]
Decarbonization
Standard Biocarbon, a Portland startup, raised $5m in funding. They produce biochar, a form of charcoal which captures carbon and can be used in landscaping and as an aggregate in low carbon cement and pavement. More here.
Energy
HiiROC, a UK startup, received investment (undisclosed). They produce low cost and zero-emission hydrogen which can be used as an alternative energy source to decarbonise heavy industries. More here.
Note:
CEMEX Ventures, the Corporate VC unit of CEMEX, a global construction material company, reinvested (originally invested in 2022).
They are rumoured to be planning deployment of their technology to decarbonise operations and increase its hydrogen injection capacity at its cement plant in Rugby, UK.
This solution is an alternative power source to SMR (Small Modular Nuclear Reactors) which are increasingly being supported by governments including: Poland, Illinois (US)
Hydrogrid, an Austrian startup, raised $9m in Series A funding. They provide water management, flow forecasting and environmental regulation compliance for hydro power owners. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Marketing]
Note:
Hydropower contributes to 60% of global renewable energy generation.
Hydro is referred to as a ‘green battery’ as Pumped Hydropower allows for clean energy storage.
In times of low demand water is pumped to a higher reservoir. This is released at times of high demand (high price) to drive the turbine and supply electricity.
This allows operators to manage demand fluctuations for grids reliant on solar and wind power.
Machinery
4QT, a Swiss startup, raised CHF$2m in pre-seed funding. They provide high performance carbon neutral drives to electrify heavy machinery in the construction industry. More here.
Safety
TuMeke, a Californian startup, raised $10m in Series A funding. They provide a computer vision ergonomic risk assessment platform aimed at eliminating workplace injuries. Safety staff can record workers via an app for joint tracking. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Software]
3D Printing
Mighty Buildings, received $5m in grant funding. They use 3D printing, robotics and advanced composite materials to produce affordable and sustainable housing. This grant from the California Energy Commission is to provide green housing in Bay Point, California for low income families. More here.
[Hiring - 5 roles in Finance, 10 roles in Other]
Note:
The funding includes development of a training program to upskill labor and teach panelized prefab construction using a blend of in-person and digital training programs. As mentioned in the last issue, Montamo is following a similar hybrid training model to upskill workers.
Construction
CheckToBuild, a Miami startup, raised $1.3m in funding. They provide as-built tracking software to automate quality control and progress tracking through automatic comparisons of architectural models and daily construction videos. More here.
Next, a Swedish startup, received investment (undisclosed). They are building project management software for the construction industry. More here.
HVD group, a Swedish startup, received investment (undisclosed). They provide a field service management and enterprise resource planning solution for field workers. More here.
[Hiring - 5 roles in Finance, 1 role in Sales, 2 roles in Support]
Risk
Projexion, a Florida startup, raised $375k in funding. They provide a risk intelligence and mitigation tool for construction managers. More here.
Asset Management
Annea, a German startup, raised $3m in seed funding. They provide a digital twin solution for renewable energy companies to automate infrastructure maintenance and optimize performance. More here.
[Hiring - 5 roles in Software, 1 role in HR, 1 role in Design]
Other
PaintJet, a Nashville startup, raised $10m in Series A funding. They develop robot systems to automate industrial painting jobs. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Finance, 7 roles in Other]
Blickfeld, a Munich startup, raised €7.5m in funding. They build LiDAR sensors which provide 3D information about an environment and applications include stockpile monitoring of construction materials or monitoring of traffic or passenger flows in a residential/commercial area. More here.
[Hiring - 1 role in Sales, 1 role in Other]
Excarta, a Californian startup, raised $2.5m in seed funding. They provide business targeted weather forecasting to enable resiliency ingesting unlimited amounts of weather data to study and forecast weather. More here.
[Hiring - 2 roles in Software]
Note:
Weather risk is an important factor to consider in construction.
A weather day is a day which is budgeted in the contract for a weather related disruption. Even if no work occurs due to the rain, labor must still be paid and needs to be planned for in the construction schedule.
If weather risk is assigned to the contractor, they require accurate weather day forecasting.
Policy & Regulatory Changes
$530M in building code technical assistance grants available from DOE
The US Department of Energy is providing up to $530m in technical assistance to increase the adoption of energy codes and building performance standards.
The funding can be used to train and develop a workforce with the latest building technology skills.
This is to ensure the effective delivery of energy efficient projects and help to modernize the US building stock.
Related: As mentioned in the issue on December 4, the DOE has been offering funding for states to update their building codes.
NYC Finalizes Rules for Landmark Building Emissions Law
Local Law 97, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, goes into effect on Jan 1, 2024.
Under this law owners of properties larger than 25,000 square feet must reduce their pollution outputs to meet new limits from 2024 with stricter requirements required from 2030.
Owners can provide ‘good faith’ decarbonization plans by May 2025 to avoid initial fines.
Future homes and buildings standards for England proposed
The UK released their Future Homes standard consultation.
From 2025, the installation of fossil fuel powered boilers in new buildings in England is to be prohibited.
Low carbon heat pumps or heat networks will be required instead.
Similar regulation has been proposed in California. See this issue.
Related: The UK has one of the lowest rates of heat pump penetration in Europe
DOE allocates $40M for energy audit training
The US Department of Energy is providing up to $40m to help states grow/upskill their workforce which will conduct energy efficiency audits on buildings.
The short term goals are to offer energy auditor training certifications and create standardized education framing.
Biden mandates PLAs on large federal contracts
Biden implemented an executive order requiring project labor agreements on federal construction projects worth $35m+.
Maryland To Propose Building Energy Performance Standards
Covered buildings (buildings larger than 35,000 square feet with exceptions) must:
By 2030 reduce net direct greenhouse gasses emissions by 20%.
By 2035 reduce net direct greenhouse gasses emissions by 40%.
By 2040 achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
New Funds & Acquisitions
Energize Ventures, a Chicago VC, is raising a third fund. They invest in climate tech software including mobility and infrastructure resilience solutions. More here.
Jensen Hughes, a Baltimore engineering consultancy focusing on safety, security and risk acquiring Warringtonfire Australia, a fire safety engineering and testing consultancy. More here.
CRH, an Irish building materials supplier, and the Barro Group, an Australian supplier of premixed concrete and quarry products, made an offer to acquire Adbri, an Australian cement maker, for $2.1b. More here.
News
Startup Inception: 011h is building a startup within a startup to clean up construction
Startups are mostly focused on digitizing a specific part of the construction process.
Contractors are mostly stuck in their ways with little opportunity to experiment with new tech (~5% operational profitability among European construction).
011h is has 2 companies in 1:
One is an app to design blueprints of the most efficient and sustainable way to build.
The other is a construction company which carries out those projects using carbon neutral materials.
Note:
This model will be increasingly common in the future. Technology companies are building new solutions but facing resistance and difficulty in adoption.
To overcome this they will become subcontractors using their own technology to deliver projects cheaper and faster than incumbents.
Why Modular Building Hasn’t Revolutionized Construction (Harvard Business Review)
California doles out $1.1B in infrastructure, resiliency funds
Europe’s green cement is taking off — here are the startups fighting to lead the $380bn market
Cemvision, a Swedish startup, has started industrial scale production of green cement at a demo plant in Poland. The aim is to produce 5m tonnes by 2030.
Material Evolution, a UK startup which uses fusion reactions to create a cement like product without heat, is aiming to open a plant next year with a capacity of 150k tonnes.
Concretene signs development deal and secures £1.2 million in Government backing
Concretene supplies graphene enhanced admixture which reduces carbon in concrete.
Construction had the most fatalities of any industry last year
Lennar, the second largest home construction company in the US, has assumed control of Veev, a prefab builder who reportedly shut down 3 weeks ago. More here.
Hyperloop One, a US startup attempting to commercialize high speed travel has reportedly gone under. More here.
Autonomous Vehicles: A Guide For Cities
Building Apollo (Construction Physics)
Israel to recruit thousands of Indian construction workers to fill shortage
If I missed anything this week, please reply and let me know! I’ll make sure to include it next week.