Dive Brief:
- European startup GenieBelt has closed on a 2 million euro ($2.25 million) new investment to increase marketing for its construction-focused project management and communications platform, according to TechCrunch.
- Publicly listed European HVAC company Danish Solar A/S led the funding round, which industry watchers took as a vote of confidence in GenieBelt's business.
- GenieBelt provides real-time access to project overviews and updates, which can be filed from the job site using a mobile device.
Dive Insight:
GenieBelt isn't alone in offering construction crews a mobile point of access to project documents and timelines, indicating the emergence of construction technology as a bona fide area of development and investment within the broader tech community. The company's co-founder Klaus Nyengaard pointed to mobile construction management software company PlanGrid as offering a similar model of market innovation in the U.S. In November 2015, the San Francisco–based maker of tablet-driven construction project management apps closed on its own $40 million Series B funding round led by Tenaya Capital and including Sequoia, Founders Fund, YC Continuity and Northgate.
To hear Tenaya managing director Ben Boyer tell it, the company’s investment is certainly tantamount to an endorsement of the viability of construction technology. "Construction is a massive market that is just beginning to utilize technology in the field," he said in a November 2015 statement that announced the PlanGrid funding and noted the 300,000-plus construction projects already running on PlanGrid. At the time of the funding, PlanGrid CEO Tracy Young said that a bulk of the investment dollars would be deployed into functionality improvements and innovations requested by users.
