Buildots has secured $16m in funding to leverage the power of AI to track, analyse and provide actionable data for construction project teams
Large projects still rely on tedious manual record-taking by project managers who often keep track of hundreds of thousands of tasks and the progress of dozens of contractors.
Productivity in the construction industry has plateaued with researchers estimating that 98% of megaprojects suffer cost overruns of more than 30% and 77% are late.
Buildots uses hardhat-mounted cameras to capture imaging on details of an ongoing project during regular site walks. The data is then automatically compared to the design model, allowing mistakes to be rectified immediately at a fraction of what it could cost to correct them weeks or months later.
Roy Danon, CEO of Buildots, said: “Any efficient process must have proper controls in place, but till now, automatic process control has been impossible to implement in construction.
“Thanks to the latest advancements in the fields of AI and computer vision, we’ve been able to bring modern systems that are ubiquitous in other industries, to construction.”
Improving productivity and decision-making
The ‘Automated Process Management’ solution created by Buildots compares the collected data with the project’s original design & schedule. It then provides essential tools for general contractors and developers to track their projects and make better decisions.
The dashboard displays the percentage of the project completed, broken down by each trade, while also consolidating and allowing for the easy tracking of the loose ends that need to be completed. These functionalities, and others, integrate with existing construction management tools.
Buildots also has plans to make their AI product available to the US construction market in the coming year.
Danon added: “Since founding the company, we have managed to prove both technical feasibility and product-market fit, by deploying the product on large-scale construction projects and showing huge returns for our customers.
“This new funding round is a great sign of confidence by existing and new investors and will be used to scale and improve our product and expand to new regions.”
The $3m seed and $13m series A rounds were led by TLV Partners with the participation of Innogy Ventures, Tidhar Construction Group and Ziv Aviram.
Shahar Tzafrir, managing partner at TLV Partners, added: “Analysts have identified a $1.6tn opportunity to close the construction productivity gap.
“The team at Buildots has been able to produce a solution that will help close that gap by bringing automation and control to construction, assisting managers to complete projects on time and within budget.”
