Dive Brief:
- Construction software startup PlanGrid has announced an investment of $40 million in its Series B financing round, led by Tenaya Capital, according to TechCrunch. Other investors include Sequoia, Founders Fund, YC Continuity and Northgate. Sequoia invested $18 million in the company in May, bringing PlanGrid’s total investment thus far to $58 million.
- PlanGrid CEO Tracy Young told TechCrunch the company will use the money to improve functionality. Customers, she said, are asking for digitized change orders, field notes, inspection reports and other traditionally paper-based aspects of the construction process.
- PlanGrid allows users to upload, track and sync changes to construction drawings in the field with a smartphone or tablet. Young told TechCrunch that 300,000 construction projects worldwide have used PlanGrid to manage 30 million blueprints.
Dive Insight:
Over the last year, TechCrunch reported, PlanGrid has gone from 30 to 180 employees and revamped its operations from Google Docs-based management to using more sophisticated tools like Slack, NetSuite, Salesforce and Hubspot. The company plans to expand its workforce to 300-350 by the end of next year and move its operations to a single building instead of operating out of its current, multiple locations.
In 2011, PlanGrid was accepted into Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley seed fund. During its initial 2012 funding round, it garnered $1.5 million from Google Ventures, 500 Startups, Gmail founder Paul Buchheit, current Y Combinator President Sam Altman, and more.
Construction-related startups have seen major investor interest recently. Technology startup Uptake reached a $1.1 billion valuation after raising $45 million from investors, including heavy equipment giant Caterpillar.
On the same day as Uptake's funding announcement, Fieldwire, a startup offering mobile and web platform services for construction projects, announced it had secured $6.6 million in Series A financing. And BuildingConnected, a construction bid management platform startup, recently announced it raised $8.5 million in Series A.
These big funding rounds for construction-related startups reflect the industry's current move toward incorporating more technology on the job site to streamline projects and avoid cost overruns and delays.
