Munich-based construction robotics firm Kewazo grabbed another $10 million in a Series A funding round Jan. 23, doubling to $20 million its total seeding to date, according to a company press release.
Kewazo’s Liftbot machine is an automated hoist that brings material to height for scaffolding assembly, a $50 billion industry in which the firm says more than 80% of projects are still undertaken completely manually. But it can also be used as a robotic hoist for other materials.
The company claims that Liftbot, which can be installed by two workers in 20 minutes, saves 70% of man hours in scaffold assembly. That not only addresses construction’s labor shortage, it simultaneously helps reduce the risk of accidents in a notoriously dangerous industry.
For that reason, robotics and construction are a natural fit. The global construction robotics market is poised to reach $164 million by 2030, according to Straits Research, with the U.S. and Europe the largest geographic areas for adoption.
Kewazo’s latest funding round was led by New York City-based real estate technology venture firm Fifth Wall, with participation from Boston-based Cybernetix Ventures, Austin, Texas-based Unorthodox Ventures and Munich-based construction software company Nemetschek. Existing investors True Ventures, based in Silicon Valley and MIG Capital AG, headquartered in Munich, also participated.
Beyond scaffolding, Liftbot can help with insulation, painting and on-site material transport, Kewazo claims. While working, the machine collects key operational data that can be fed into its Onsite analytics platform, providing transparency to what happens on a jobsite and enabling data-driven project management.
While the solution has mostly been used in Europe to date — a dozen Liftbots already work at plants in the oil, gas, energy and chemical industries — Kewazo says that the additional funding will support expansion overseas.
“This influx of capital will propel us to expand our sophisticated robotic fleet across Europe and North America, in tandem with enabling us to build out our additional digital services,” said Artem Kuchukov, Kewazo’s CEO, in the release.
