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This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n When it comes to venture investing in construction, contractors have operated like they do in the field. Instead of looking at shiny new toys, they\u2019re deploying established methods to help turn a profit.<\/p>\n This approach has emerged via two key trends: Builders are ramping up their own venture funding arms, and they\u2019re looking for startups that are commercial-ready, rather than starting out.<\/p>\n Take DPR Construction. Its Redwood City, California, headquarters is located in the heart of Silicon Valley. Its inhouse investment arm, WND Ventures, has been active since 2015<\/a>, according to its LinkedIn, and has put money toward established startups such as reality capture platform DroneDeploy, AI-based document tracking tool Trunk Tools and automated layout robot creator Dusty Robotics, according to the company\u2019s portfolio<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another contractor on the hunt for tech companies with a proven track record is Suffolk Technologies, the venture capital offshoot of Boston-based Suffolk. The firm runs its BOOST accelerator program annually, tapping promising startups to deploy existing solutions on jobs while offering not only investments, but coaching from the inside out.\u00a0<\/p>\n To date, the cohort has featured 30 different startups<\/a>, according to its website. Suffolk Technologies initially invests $100,000 on a post-money SAFE, or a Simple Agreement for Future Equity<\/a>, which allows an investor to put money into a company and solidify the percentage it will own when that cash is converted to shares.<\/p>\n Graduates of this program include San Francisco-based Canvas, which creates robots that help with the drywall process. The company, which focuses on drywall finishing<\/a>, completed a $24 million Series B in April 2021<\/a>, in which Suffolk Construction participated. Since then, Canvas has partnered with drywall manufacturer USG<\/a> and construction equipment manufacturer Hilti in 2023 and released a new robot<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n Then there is San Francisco-based Webcor, which is a new player on the block \u2014 the builder unveiled Webcor Ventures, its investment offshoot, on Nov. 15. It acquired a 10% stake in the Oakland, California-based modular construction firm R2 Building as its inaugural investment.<\/p>\n And even Turner Construction, the New York City-based building giant, has gotten into the game, launching Turner Ventures<\/a> on March 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anatomy of funding<\/p>\n Funding rounds for startups can be thought of as a company\u2019s maturity indicator. A company raising a pre-seed funding round<\/a>, for example, can be seen as in its infancy and is reflected as such in its investors \u2014 friends, family, supporters and the founders themselves. Additionally, some companies never extend beyond Seed funding into later rounds, like Series A.<\/p>\n Construction Series B deals are on the rise<\/p>\n Percentage of built environment deals that were Series B funding rounds or later by year.<\/p>\n By contrast, a company raising a later stage round, such as Series A or B, is more established and can attract the presence of other, larger investors. These more mature rounds also tend to attract more money. One example is Buildots, based in Tel Aviv, Israel, which delivers an AI-powered project tracking solution. Buildots completed a $45 million Series D funding round<\/a> in May, which brought its total capital raised to $166 million.<\/p>\n Indeed, even Series A rounds must demonstrate not just a great idea, but also a strong strategy to generate profit. This differs from Seed funding, where a company raises cash to finance its first steps, such as establishing a final product and its target demographic. Taken together, this means Series A funding also comes later in a firm\u2019s lifecycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Corporate investments in Series A and later funding rounds take up larger share of investment volume<\/p>\n Percentage of corporate investments that were for Series A deals and later in the cycle, compared to deals that were pre-Series A.<\/p>\n \u201cI think startups are beginning to realize that there are no disruptions in this space,\u201d said Dan Laboe, founding principal of Nymbl Ventures. \u201cIt’s more of a slow transformation into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the last five years, these firms have matured during the COVID-19 pandemic, international conflicts and now, tariff-induced economic uncertainty.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dan Laboe<\/p>\n Permission granted by Nymbl Ventures<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Observers say that over the next five years, new opportunities are available for firms \u2014 and contractors in particular \u2014 that put in the grunt work to identify solutions that are viable in the field today.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gonzalo Galindo, the head of Cemex Ventures, the contech-focused venture capital arm of Monterrey, Mexico-based building materials firm Cemex, said that firms that make it to the Series B stage have had to overcome obstacles already.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a normal course of business, because many of the people in Series B have been, for a year to a year and a half, trying to raise money,\u201d Galindo said. \u201cThose which are actually still alive are showing that they are resilient, that they know how to manage business, how to manage the funding, and certainly will be more prone to get money these days.\u201d<\/p>\n Builders seeking solutions<\/p>\n Along the way, these tech survivors have established a toehold in construction by tailoring solutions to the industry\u2019s endemic challenges \u2014 labor shortages<\/a>, environmental unpredictability<\/a> and cash bottlenecks<\/a> \u2014 that threaten to derail projects, either on the jobsite or before they even start.<\/p>\n In the current environment, artificial intelligence reigns supreme as the most hyped technology. Additionally, robots, software platforms and physical equipment also play an important role on jobsites.<\/p>\n For example, Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co. used New York City-based Trunk Tools, which tracked around 21,000 discrete documents<\/a> on the $456 million renovation of Milwaukee\u2019s Baird Center to save money. Another \u2014 Zachry Construction, based in San Antonio \u2014 used Menlo Park, California-based Alice Technologies to speed up its estimating process<\/a>, which helped the builder save 28 days on a $149 million highway project\u2019s timeline.<\/p>\n Follow the money<\/p>\n The broader venture capital landscape is flush with cash \u2014 global venture funding reached $321 billion in 2024<\/a>, doubling over the last decade, according to Crunchbase. However, contech makes up a more diminutive portion of the total \u2014 the sector managed to pull $3.1 billion in 2024<\/a> following a sharp downturn in 2023, according to analysis by Cemex Ventures.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, construction, with its thin profit margins and a reputation for doing things the way they\u2019ve always been done, has become a favorite target for startups looking to disrupt it, due to its well-known technology adoption gap. While that gap narrowed during the pandemic<\/a>, critics say construction still lags far behind<\/a> other industries in productivity gains due to integrating new technologies.<\/p>\n With that in mind, experts say that though the sector is small, it is mighty, and ripe with opportunity for those who seek it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think 2025 is going to be a transitional year for really understanding where the technology investments need to be made,\u201d Nymbl\u2019s Laboe said.<\/p>\n Bigger kids on the block<\/p>\n This is where more mature startups can prove attractive to builders. Laboe said that the later-stage startups represented a quid pro quo relationship with builders, who can capitalize on the immediate rewards of a commercially ready product while boosting a startup\u2019s growth trajectory.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a reassuring sign for other builders if they can see a contractor investing in a product, Laboe said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are long-standing industries and industry players. It takes a lot of time to gain their trust in this space,\u201d Laboe explained. \u201cHaving corporate backers in your investments gives them immediate economic reason to adopt the technology and help guide it toward the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Where contractors fit<\/p>\n The question then becomes how are contractors getting involved? And how are they putting their money to use?<\/p>\n Atul Khanzode, CTO at DPR Construction works with WND Ventures to seek out new solutions for the firm to leverage on its jobsites. He maintains that there\u2019s a time and place for the cash, as long as it\u2019s paired with boots-on-the-ground experience or even experimentation.\u00a0<\/p>\n For those firms that already have financial backing from strategic investors, WND and other contractor venture arms have an interesting value proposition beyond dollars: contractor input.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are very interested in our opinions about how useful their technology is or not, and want to partner with us even sooner,\u201d Khanzode said.<\/p>\n Wan Li Zhu, the co-founder and managing director of Suffolk Technologies, the venture capital offshoot of Boston-based Suffolk, offered a different sort of analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wan Li Zhu<\/p>\n Permission granted by Suffolk Construction<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The firm\u2019s venture arm, Zhu said, sits at the intersection of the funding ecosystem to be an early-stage validator. Some startups, he said, come in with grand expectations.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of entrepreneurs that don’t come from construction may have a perception that it’s trillions of dollars of volume, so there must be a significant technology budget. That’s often not the case, and the fragmentation is part of the friction as well,\u201d Zhu pointed out.<\/p>\n So, what\u2019s next? The simple answer, experts said, is more investor cash, particularly fueled by the AI boom<\/a>, a sentiment that has borne fruit through the first quarter of 2025. Already, investors have pumped $521 million into AI-based contech offerings, the highest amount since 2021.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Z3M6Ly9kaXZlc2l0ZS1zdG9yYWdlL2RpdmVpbWFnZS9EYW5pZWxfTGFib2VfSGVhZHNob3QucG5n.webp.webp\"\/)
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