Buildup raises $7m for construction sector task management tools
California firm Buildup has raised $7m in series A funding from investors including Abstract Ventures and TLV Partners, bringing its total funding to $8.6m. The company has developed cloud-based software for the construction and property management industries that replaces paperwork with a digital alternative. The sector has slowly begun to adopt digitisation and investors are keen to back firms embracing the technology. Buildup's new funding followed rounds by BuildingConnected, EquipmentShare and Aproplan, which raised $22m, $20m and $6m respectively.

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Buildup, a task management and collaboration platform aimed at the construction industry, has raised $7 million in a Series A round of funding from Tel Aviv-based TLV Partners, UpWest Labs, 01 Ventures, Abstract Ventures, and Check founders Guy Goldstein and Ahikam Kaufman.

Founded in 2013, Palo Alto-based Buildup targets contractors, developers, and property managers with cross-platform software for identifying and fixing tasks and issues related to a job. It includes features such as punch lists, automated task sequencing, quality control tools, subcontractor performance analysis, and more. Ultimately, it’s all about bringing handwritten lists and printed documents into a central cloud-based location.

Prior to now, Buildup had raised $1.6 million in seed funding, and with its latest cash influx the company said that it plans to expand its engineering, sales, and marketing teams.

Inefficient

The global construction market is reportedly worth around $10 trillion, but the industry isn’t renowned for its efficiency, with some reports suggesting that the sector is among the lowest in terms of productivity — partly due to its lack of digitization.

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“The construction industry lags behind other markets in the overall productivity of its workers,” noted TLV Partners managing partner Eitan Bek. “Buildup addresses the longest phase of a construction project: building. The management team has executed extremely well, with limited resources, and has managed to achieve significant customer adoption in a challenging market.”

And it’s against this backdrop that the tech industry has seen myriad construction-related launches and investments around the world.

Back in September, BuildingConnected raised $22 million to grow its bid procurement platform for building contractors, and “Airbnb for construction” startup EquipmentShare raised $20 million to grow its marketplace for selling and lending equipment.

Elsewhere, Emagispace raised $4.2 million for its modular building block technology, Belgian startup Aproplan raised around $6 million for its “Salesforce for construction” platform, and Zillow acquired New Home Feed to help builders market new properties. Notably, Netscape creator Jim Clark recently launched CommandScape, which is touted as a state-of-the-art building management system for premium properties.

Buildup said that it has worked with ENR-ranked top 50 companies such as Turner Construction, Whiting Turner, AvalonBay, and Greystar, among others.

“Our customers have used Buildup to make job sites more efficient and collaborative, while also gaining newfound insight into critical and timely data during the execution stage of construction projects, when most of their budget is spent,” added Buildup CEO and cofounder Oren Cohen.