INDUS.AI raises USD 8m in Series A
INDUS.AI RAISES USD 8M IN SERIES A
TIM LEEMASTER
INDUS.AI, the San Francisco, California-based construction software company using AI, said it raised USD 8m in a Series A.
The round was led by Millennium New Horizons, a fund run by Millennium Technology Venture Partners focused on AI, robotics, drones, sensors and autonomous driving.
Proceeds from the round will be used to accelerate product development and expand sales and marketing, the company said in a statement released today.
Foundamental, a venture capital firm with a construction industry focus, and GroundBreak Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on real estate, also participated.
The round was structured as preferred equity, according to CEO and co-founder Matt Man. He declined to elaborate further but said it was considered a standard Series A that took about 3-4 months to put together.
The company was comfortable with the amount it raised and was not in residual discussions with potential investors and not likely to take on more capital in the near future.
“Eight million is plenty to get to the next milestone,” Man said. “There’s already a buffer in there and it’s not our first time gig so we know how to manage and predict profitability.”
The company says it can cut costs and increase safety on construction sites with the technology it has developed to track work progress. Clients include Swedish construction company Skanska.
The company, which was founded in 2017, uses neural networks trained with images and video streams. As part of its process to eliminate false positives it also has a non-neural proprietary system as one final step.
Man said INDUS.AI plans to raise the number of staff to 50 from the current 33 over the next six months. It plans to double its sales team to four and bring another 10 or so engineers in. The company currently has 20 engineers.
The company completed its C-suite before the current fundraise bringing in a chief technology officer, Andrey Yruski, and chief revenue officer, Pat O’Brien, among others, according to Man. Man’s other co-founder Navin Kaminoulu holds the COO position.
The two met working at the same consulting firm and sold a traffic management startup called GreenOwl Mobile to IBI Group, the Canadian architecture and engineering consulting firm, right before founding INDUS.AI. Man said the idea for the new company was driven in part by the difficulties they encountered on their own residential construction projects.
The company raised USD 3.7m in a seed round in July last year. That round was led by UP2398, an investment firm based in Redwood City, California and focused on seed stage companies.
Man said the company is generating revenue but declined to provide a specific number. They charge clients what Man described as the average cost of a junior project engineer for a specific construction project. Annual salaries for such a position in the US average about USD 60k, according to industry data.