Funding the Future of ConTech

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Welcome to the third edition of my Construction Technology Newsletter! Your go-to source for all the latest developments, trends, and insights in the world of ConTech.

Whether you're a seasoned industry professional or are just starting to explore the exciting world of ConTech and their innovations, this newsletter is for you. Stay informed, stay ahead of the curve, and join the conversation about the future of this exciting field.

If you're interested in contributing to an upcoming edition or collaborating on a future project, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'd love to hear from you!

In the third edition of this monthly newsletter, we’ll be looking at some of the recent investments we've seen in the ConTech market - and why we should all have a positive outlook for the future of the industry!

Scepticism or Optimism in the ConTech market?

Let's address the elephant in the room. The news surrounding tech companies (particularly in the US) have made for grim reading recently. Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft have all been involved in mass redundancies as they aim to reduce costs that have ballooned since the pandemic. The same can be said for the construction industry; usually a robust and bullish industry. The number of open jobs in construction dropped by 73,000 to 341,000 in March this year, with “The 3.7% of construction workers who were laid off or discharged in March is the highest rate since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic”, according to Associated Builders and Contractors’ Chief Economist.

Naturally this has spurred a reaction from leaderships teams at Construction Technology companies. Some, who despite receiving recent funding rounds, are now resisting the urge to add headcount and instead have pushed hiring plans till later in the year in hopes of a market rebound. But is it all doom and gloom?

A Maturing market and investor optimism

More and more investors are recognizing AEC tech’s potential to fundamentally change the structure of the construction industry. According to McKinsey, The proportion of late-stage venture capital in total AEC tech investment totalled $11.5 billion between 2020 and 2022, more than triple that of the previous three years.

In the UK, there is a very positive and resilient outlook across the tech scene. During 2022, fast-growing UK tech companies have continued to raise at near-record levels (￡24 billion), more than France (￡11.8 billion) and Germany (￡9.1 billion) combined. This means the UK tech industry is ahead of its European peers, s well as retaining the lead when it comes to overall funding, unicorns and start-ups numbers. This has enabled the UK to produce almost 400 high-growth start-ups since 2000.

So let's look at some of the recent investments and funding rounds we've seen across the ConTech scene in the last month alone!

Recent ConTech Funding

PermitFlow - permit application and management software firm raised $5.5M in seed round funding led by Initialized Capital , announced May 8th.

Alice Technologies - construction simulation software platform have now totalled $47M in Series B funding, having announced an additional $13M of equity financing from 太古地产 .

LiveCosts - construction cost tracking software provider have received an initial investment from AEC software provider, Nemetschek Group

EquipmentShare - construction equipment and digital solutions provider?completed a $290 million funding round led by? BDT & MSD Partners .

Corecon Technologies - cloud-based pre-construction and project management software provider were recently acquired by UK software giant, Sage .

As you can see, whilst hesitancy to grow is creeping into the ConTech sector, there is still plenty of confidence from investors that the industry is making huge strides and is worthy of their backing. Congratulations to the above companies on their recent activity and to all the others who are successfully making the construction industry more effective, safer and a better place to work!

Looking ahead to Digital Construction Week in London

This is why I'm extremely excited for my first trade event of the year. I'm hoping to get a real insight and vision of how these technologies operate and hearing about the growth plans that teams have for the rest of 2023.

If you're planning to hire this year but have no idea where to start, next week is the perfect time for us to sit down and map out your talent and recruitment strategy.

Drop me a message on LinkedIn or reach out on the below contact details so we can arrange some time at the event.

And as always, follow the #ConTechTalk hashtag for more news and share the optimism with your network! See you next week