10 Construction Tech Startups Worth Watching
For the past five to six years, the world of construction tech has been booming. New software and hardware companies in the construction industry have been creating technology products and solutions that are revolutionizing the way in which landscaping and construction projects are planned and completed.
Whether it's safety solutions, project management software, equipment rental marketplaces, or an entirely new building material, there are interesting construction tech companies that offer innovative solutions worth keeping an eye on.
Although there are definitely more than 10 construction tech startups that are worth watching in the very near future, we've put together a list of some of the most interesting and innovative companies in this field. The concept behind these tech startups, their missions, and their products, services, and solutions have all been taken into consideration and covered in this blog.
In no particular order, here are 10 construction tech startups worth watching:
RenoRun
RenoRun is an eCommerce platform for general contractors to both purchase construction and building materials as well as get them delivered to their job sites. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, RenoRun has offices in the markets of Toronto, Omaha, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
RenoRun offers one main solution, which is their eCommerce platform. This platform is designed for contractors to order and get the delivery of desired building materials. This construction tech startup has its own team of drivers who specialize in both picking the best quality materials for an order and the fast, reliable delivery of that order. RenoRun also offers 2-hour, same-day delivery. Their services can be used via an internet browser or through mobile solutions like their iPhone and Android app.
The biggest reason why you should watch RenoRun in the near future is because of how they have managed to merge the construction building material industry with the ever-growing platform of eCommerce.
Built
Built is a software company that provides financial management solutions for various types of companies in the field of construction finance.
Founded in 2014, and headquartered in Nashville, TN, Built is enabling all stakeholders in a construction project to get the job done faster and more efficiently than ever before. This construction tech startup aims to improve the flow of capital of a construction project by connecting commercial and consumer construction lenders, commercial real estate owners, commercial general contractors, residential homebuilders, specialty contractors, title companies, and other industry vendors, all in one platform.
Although Built offers three different services for their clients, their "For Construction" and "For Lending" solutions are the main focus of this construction tech company. Their "For Construction" solution aims at simplifying the project documentation and payment process by offering services that include lien waiver management, payment compliance tracking, and built-in payment methods. When it comes to their "For Lending" solutions, Built allows lenders the ability to have advanced loan administration abilities, like monetary draw management, collateral management, an enhanced borrower experience dashboard, and organized portfolio insights for each project, all on their platform.
The main reason why you should keep an eye on Built is because of how truly unique and useful their services are. At the end of the day, capital is what keeps construction projects afloat. Having an all-in-one loan management solution for both contractors and lenders can help streamline projects and create efficient spending for all stakeholders, something that everyone benefits from.
PartRunner
PartRunner is a tech-logistics company that aims to help contractors, suppliers, and delivery drivers with the process of bulky construction material orders.
Founded in 2017, in Boston, PartRunner allows contractors and construction material suppliers to increase productivity, reduce costs, and maximize their output all through their logistics platform. After placing a construction material order, contractors and suppliers can utilize ParRunner's network of small and large vehicle drivers who will handle the pick-up and delivery of a contractor's materials.
PartRunner has three main solutions: one for contractors, one for suppliers, and one for delivery drivers. Through their website or mobile app, contractors can have large and bulky material orders delivered to them in a matter of minutes by placing pickup and drop-off locations for their material, something that they otherwise wouldn't be able to do because of time constraints or lack of transportation vehicles. Similarly, if a construction material supplier cannot get a large order delivered to a customer, that supplier can use PartRunner's network or drivers to get the materials from their yard to their customer. Finally, PartRunner allows independent drivers to become a part of their delivery network. Drivers can set their own schedules by accepting bulky material delivery jobs whenever they please.
All in all, PartRunner can almost be considered an Uber for heavy materials. Efficient logistical solutions are becoming more and more important within every industry in modern times, and PartRunner is at the forefront of this movement in the construction industry.
Mighty Buildings
Mighty Buildings is a construction tech company that creates sustainable homes using 3D printed, robotically automated technology.
Founded in 2017, in Oakland, Mighty Buildings creates prefabricated home kits with their patented 3D-printed panel system. This construction tech startup boasts an automated, near zero-waste production process that can help reduce construction project timelines by 50-75% thanks to their factory floor-to-foundation efficiency. Mighty Buildings' products aren't just a great concept for environmental and productive benefits, they're also stylishly designed to help create beautiful modern homes.
Mighty Buildings' main product is their 3D printed home-building material. The company's 3D printers use a thermoset composite material called Light Stone Material, which hardens when exposed to UV light. This product allows Mighty Buildings to produce modular houses and building components faster than traditional construction. If you like modern home designs, you should definitely check out their prefabricated home kits, as well as some of the stunning homes that the company has actually built.
Environmental sustainability, time-saving methods, and money-saving solutions are all things that the construction industry is trending towards. The reason why you should watch Mighty Buildings is that they offer all three of these benefits in the rapidly-expanding industry of home-building.
Newmetrix
Newmetrix is the developer of a cloud-based video management platform that's designed to significantly reduce job-site risk.
Founded in the Greater Boston Area, in 2015, Newmetrix aims to reduce job site risk and overall project cost by combining the best of human and artificial intelligence. This construction tech startup has developed a construction-trained AI which delivers unbiased insights, predicts where to focus your attention, and prescribes specific actions to prevent incidents before they occur. Newmetrix can tell you which 20% of your projects will have 80% of your incidents in the following week.
The solutions that Newmetrix offers all come in their easy-to-use platform that's also highly integrative with other software like Procore and Autodesk. This platform includes the construction industry’s first computer vision and predictive models that were trained and built specifically for construction and safety risks. The platform's Predictive Analytics functions enable teams to continuously reduce risk by proactively identifying high-risk projects through an incident early warning system. The Safety Observation product helps teams drive higher levels of engagement, increasing participation by craft workers to make safety everyone’s responsibility. Most impressively, the platform's Safety Monitoring product helps safety managers and executives identify up-to-date risk conditions and where to focus each week.
Safety and risk management have been steadily becoming more and more of a priority in the construction industry in the tech development space. So much so that a lot of enterprises and even medium-sized companies are looking for the best possible, most accurate decision-making methods for risk prevention. For that reason, Newmetrix's AI and software are worth watching as the safety and risk management trends continue to grow in the construction industry.
Arqlite
Arqlite is a recycling technology company making green construction and landscaping materials.
Founded in 2015, in Santa Ana, CA, Arqlite aims to manufacture the next generation of sustainable building and landscaping materials. Made from plastic waste, their products and materials are both better for environmental sustainability, as well as more efficient in landscaping and construction.
Arqlite offer one main product that has multiple practical applications. This construction tech startup has created a light aggregate called Smart Gravel. Smart Gravel is a lightweight aggregate that can be used as a gravel substitute for green construction and landscaping projects, as well as melted and molded into precast concrete for modular building. This gravel alternative, according to Arqlite, is greener, cheaper, 10 times better insulator, and 3 times lighter than mineral gravel.
This construction tech startup is worth watching since they offer both an eco-friendly and a cost-friendly solution.
Mechasys
Mechasys is a construction tech and hardware company that specializes in building accuracy through laser positioning technologies.
Founded in 2018, in Montreal, QC, Mechasys aims to help eliminate project building errors through the accuracy of their laser projection device and accompanying software. This construction tech startup has developed an innovative laser projector that displays construction plans in real scale directly on construction sites with an accuracy of 3 mm.
The main product that Mechasys provides is the FramR, a laser projection device that delivers accurate and productive visual workflow to job sites. Combined with its remote tablet, and its web application, Mechasys' FramR allows contractors to import CAD drawings and create laser projections of those plans on job site floors, walls, and ceilings, allowing for an accurate physical and visual representation of the required work to be displayed.
Since this product accelerates productivity rates on job sites while also reducing the risk of human error, it's no wonder why Mechasys is a construction tech startup worth watching. Seeing how they can bring larger-scale projections, and even augmented reality, into the construction industry in order to improve accuracy could bring about a different way of building anything.
Brokrete
Brokrete is a software and eCommerce company made for construction material commerce.
Founded in 2017, in Toronto, ON, Brokrete aims to offer suppliers and partners the opportunity to build their own real-time delivery platform. In addition. this construction tech startup's eCommerce solution gives contractors a centralized platform to manage and order materials like ready-mix concrete, aggregates, and construction commodities online.
As mentioned above, there are two main services that Brokrete offers, one for suppliers and one for contractors. For partnered suppliers, Brokrete allows for the creation of an eCommerce app or website backed by their software, specifically designed for the construction industry. This includes components like order management functions and "buy-now" capabilities. For contractors, the Brokrete website or app can be used to source, order, pay for, and manage construction materials from the best, region-specific suppliers.
Now more than ever, contractors are ordering materials online, so to stay ahead of the competition, suppliers will be using platforms like Brokrete to go online. So because of their innovative eCommerce-oriented software solutions, Brokrete is worth watching.
Spacemaker
Spacemaker is a software and AI company that has developed an AI-driven program specializing in urban development.
Founded in 2016, in Oslo, Norway, and acquired by tech-giant Autodesk, Spacemaker has created a game-changing AI technology that helps stakeholders find the smartest ways to maximize the value of any building site. This construction tech startup provides the tools for architects, real estate developers, and municipalities to gain a higher level of insight into a project. By changing and improving decision support and collaboration in real estate development, Spacemaker aims to help build environmentally sustainable and better cities to live in.
This software solution helps architects, urban planners, and real estate developers to design high-quality site proposals. They do this through the creation of 3D massing models and their surroundings using automatic data sets, the testing of site proposals via accurate analyses of 100+ criteria such as noise, wind, sun, and microclimate, and through a streamlining of early-stage planning and design workflows with intuitive tools and generative design.
Urban space is quickly becoming a real problem for humans across the globe. With Spacemaker's software aiming to alleviate this problem, this construction tech startup is worth keeping a very close eye on.
DOZR
Last, but certainly not least, is DOZR; a software and eCommerce company in the heavy equipment rental industry.
Founded in 2015, in Kitchener, ON, DOZR aims to bring eCommerce solutions to the equipment rental industry, making construction efficient through technology. This construction tech startup has created the largest online marketplace for connecting rental companies to contractors, as well as an eCommerce platform for rental companies to create their own customized heavy equipment rental-specific website.
DOZR provides two main solutions for both contractors and heavy equipment rental suppliers. The first solution, called DOZR Marketplace, is an online marketplace for contractors to search for and compare different heavy equipment rentals near them. After ordering the best deal from DOZR Marketplace, contractors don't have to worry about any logistics since the DOZR team takes care of everything. Suppliers can also become part of the DOZR Marketplace network for free and have their equipment listed on the site whenever it's available, making it accessible to more contractors near them.
DOZR's second solution is a custom website building service for equipment suppliers called WebStores. WebStores enables heavy equipment rental companies to have their own fully-functioning rental website that includes features like online checkout with credit card payments, customer verification, preferred rates, credit account handling, full ERP integration, an order management table to accept and decline orders at the click of a button, and an easy-to-use Admin Portal that allows full control over everything about the WebStore.
Keep watching DOZR and the progress that they're making by shaking up the traditional heavy equipment rental industry. This construction tech startup is rapidly growing thanks to its innovative approach to heavy equipment.
Closing Thoughts
No matter what facet of the construction industry these tech companies may serve, there's no argument that their innovative solutions and approaches are something to keep watching in both the near and far future.
