Dive Brief:

• Cemex Ventures, the contech investment arm of Cemex based in Madrid, Spain, has selected the eight category finalists of its Construction Startup Competition, the firm announced on Oct. 19. 
• The eight international startups were selected across four categories: green construction, enhanced productivity, construction supply chain and the future of construction. 
• The firms will go on to compete for the gold, silver and bronze medals at Pitch Day 2023, held at Trimble’s Dimensions User Conference on Nov. 7 in Las Vegas, according to the release. For the first time, the three medalists will also receive an additional cash prize.

Dive Insight:

Cemex Ventures ran this year’s iteration with a host of partners that include construction technology giant Trimble, engineering firm Black & Veatch and contractor Haskell’s investment arm, Dysruptek. Since the annual competition’s launch in 2017, organizers have received over 3,000 applications.

During Pitch Day 2023, the startups will pitch to executive representatives, network with industry leaders and have access to capital investment and real-scale pilots, according to Cemex.

The startups come from countries and regions around the world, and feature no return winners from last year’s competition. 

The eight startups are:

• Civ Robotics (United States) – Builds autonomous layout systems for the construction industry with an emphasis on solar farm and road projects that require thousands of coordinates a day.
• Construex (Ecuador) –  Digitizes construction suppliers across Latin America, offering software tools to suppliers, mostly SMBs, to help them manage their digital presence, find and manage clients and grow their businesses with data.
• Firstplanit (United Kingdom) – Provides designers, developers, and manufacturers with insights on the environmental, social, health and monetary benefits of building materials and products through a digital platform. 
• Frontline (Singapore) – Develops proprietary optimization algorithms that enable contractors to identify efficient actions on its construction planning simulation and optimization platform.
• Fyld (United Kingdom) – Brings real-time remote site visibility to construction with its AI-driven work execution platform. Workers use it  to record work- and safety-related activities using unstructured data, such as video, audio or text, which Fyld’s AI analyzes simultaneously.
• RodRadar (Israel) – Detects underground utility infrastructure, automatically and in real time, during excavation, without the need for expert analysis using its Live Dig Radar. Its debut product LDR Excavate, an excavator digging bucket with integrated LDR radar-imaging technology, detects and alerts the excavator operator of all types of pipes and utilities.
• sensmore (Germany) – Leverages novel radar technology and artificial intelligence to solve automation challenges for heavy machinery. Its plug-and-play, vehicle-agnostic software is deployable across mining, quarries, and similar sectors.
• Vizcab (France) – Focuses on the embodied carbon impact of materials. It offers solutions from carbon budgeting to regulatory accounting and reporting.