Dive Brief:
- Procore has closed a $75 million funding round, led by Tiger Global Management, that boosted its value to $3 billion, according to a statement.
- This round, Procore said, will help support product development, partner platform expansion and continued investment in hiring and developing talent. Based in Carpinteria, California, the firm, founded in 2002, currently has more than 1,300 full-time employees across its 12 global offices.
- “We will continue to invest in the core areas of our business that have direct positive impact for our users,” said Tooey Courtemanche, Procore founder and CEO. Procore's user base includes more than 5,000 customers on projects in more than 100 countries, the firm said.
Dive Insight:
A report by real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) in July found that venture capitalists injected $1 billion into construction technology startups in just the first half of this year — a sum exceeding last year’s investment by 30%. That same report named Procore, along with Katerra and Uptake Technologies, as "unicorns," or startups valued at more than $1 billion. At the time of the report, Procore had secured $180 million in funding.
The JLL report also revealed that collaboration software and project management purveyors accounted for 112 startups, followed by 50 focused on offsite techniques and almost 40 mobile-centric startups. “Offsite construction, cloud-based software and new, tech-focused hardware are capturing the largest investor dollars and customer bases,” the report said. “Artificial intelligence and big data solutions are a close second, but are positioned to make even larger impacts.”
Katerra perhaps remains the most dominant dealmaker and funds-raiser in the con-tech space. The off-site, prefabricated housing-based tech firm is valued at more than $3 billion and was named Construction Dive's Dealmaker of the Year in the 2018 Dive Awards. In January it raised $865 million in Series D funding, led by SoftBank Vision Fund, then went on to add six new firms under its umbrella.
BIM hardware and software technology company Prescient, which specializes in prefabricated modular buildings up to 18 stories high, attracted $50 million in Series E funding this year, bringing its valuation to $650 million. Its increased becomes evident in the company's rapid production growth.
In 2016 and 2017 combined, the company built 2.7 million square feet. This year, it has delivered or is in the process of building 3.6 million square feet. Prescient also continues to innovate with advancements such as manufacturing and installing stairs, building and inserting metal flooring and installing external sheathing to create a dry-in environment earlier in the process.
Besides its core cloud collaboration software business, Procore aims to establish itself as a construction technology thought leader. Last month at its flagship event, Groundbreak, which drew more than 3,000 attendees, the company conducted educational sessions focused on best business practices and technology’s role in them (and, of course, sessions about its new products and partnerships).
