The 50 most Disruptive Contech Start-ups of 2023 announced by Cemex Ventures
CEMEX Ventures, CEMEX’s corporate venture capital and open innovation unit, launches its annual TOP 50 list of construction technology start-ups. Its fourth annual edition features the 50 most promising Contech start-ups that will redefine the industry this year.
The start-up solutions included in the list are classified according to CEMEX Ventures’ four strategic focus areas: Green Construction, Enhanced Productivity, Construction Supply Chain, and Future of Construction.
Since 2018, increasing investment and upward projections have established construction technology start-ups as critical sources of innovation as the industry faces pressure to evolve. After an active year of investment in 2022 totalling $5.38Bn and almost 230 deals, the start-up ecosystem in 2023 continues to prove ripe for disruption. Accordingly, the TOP 50 2023 list is accompanied by a comprehensive industry report reviewing key investment trends and figures from 2022 and forecasting future venture capital activities in the year to come.
Last year, solutions related to enhancing productivity made up 53% of total deals, followed by new construction methods and advanced solutions such as offsite construction or construction
robotics, 20.6%. Green construction, which was the strongest category in 2021, instead placed third, 14.9%, followed by construction supply chain with 11.4%. However, new pain points in 2023 can change the direction of investment in the upcoming year.
“Consistent investment activity in 2022 speaks to the sector’s resilience during a year that saw substantial decreases in investment across the board. Contech is incipient, meaning there’s more
money flowing in and a less crowded marketplace with more opportunities for start-ups,” said Gonzalo Galindo, Head of CEMEX Ventures. “CEMEX Ventures will continue to follow its current investment strategy: investing in early-stage companies, with the same split of investment into Contech solutions (e.g., supply chain, enhanced productivity, future of construction) and Cleantech solutions (e.g., green construction).”
Most Contech investments in 2022 took place in North America and Europe, however, there was also substantial activity in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. More specifically, Contech financing was concentrated in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Israel.
The selected start-ups in this year’s TOP 50 list come from all over the world, however, they all boast solutions with a unified objective: to revolutionize the construction industry.
The TOP 50 2023 Contech Start-ups
2050 Materials – United Kingdom
2050 Materials addresses the pressing issues around building material sustainability and turns climate targets into tangible actions for architects.
Advanced Construction Robotics – United States
ACR is filling the labour gap and increasing overall productivity with their robots that help construction firms consistently meet growing demand, reduce scheduling risks and improve safety.
AECInspire – United States
AECInspire is a SaaS solution that digitizes building material procurement and management with emphasis on prefab to address labour shortage and price volatility.
AEInnova – Spain
AEInnova helps industries to become more efficient and environmentally friendly by offering self-powered IoT solutions.
Akanthas – France
Convinced that waste is a resource, we digitize production at source to optimize their management and increase added value.
Aren – United States
Aren has built a civil infrastructure management platform for engineering firms and asset owners to minimize the risk of failure and optimize infrastructure spending.
Automatic Construction – United States
Inflatable concrete buildings.
bobbie – Germany
bobbie is the leanest procurement platform and marketplace for commercial building materials.
Brinja – Sweden
Brinja builds intelligent construction with a wireless IoT ecosystem platform app that optimizes energy, increases safety and efficiency during the production phase of a site.
BuildClub – United States
Tech enabled on-demand materials and logistics supplier to the construction industry.
Buildwitt – United States
People-focused media, construction marketing services, and training software to make the Dirt World a better place.
CAALA – Germany
CAALA is the platform for calculating, optimizing and communicating CO2- emissions in the real estate and construction industry.
Calidad Cloud – Chile
Quality and productivity in one tool. Minimize costly risks, delays and increase project efficiency, quality, accountability project closeout and warranties.
Carbon BioCapture – United States
Carbon Capture as a Service to remove CO2, SOx, and NOx from point-source emissions using native microalgae strains to grow valuable biomass in high-efficiency patented photobioreactors.
Carbon Limit – United States
Carbon Capturing concrete technology.
CATHAGO – Germany
All suppliers in your pocket – CATHAGO is the Purchase2Play for procurement of materials, tools, and equipment.
CivilGrid – United States
Google Maps for Construction – a clearinghouse for all built world data.
Civils.ai – Singapore
Civils.ai is a SaaS solution using data and AI to make every construction project easier to design.
CleanInnoGen – Canada
CleanInnoGen commercializes a deep tech to decarbonize heavy industry with on-site low-cost hydrogen production from waste heat.
comstruct – Germany
comstruct is the data platform for material procurement in the construction industry connecting construction companies and their material suppliers.
Conox – United States
Conox, LLC has developed processes to use waste concrete as a raw material for the production of glass products.
CONSTAL – United Arab Emirates
The leading marketplace for construction talents.
Constru – United States
Constru is building the future of efficiency with a computer vision platform that turns captured imagery into insights for better data-driven decision making.
Construex – Ecuador
Construex is a B2B SaaS enabled construction marketplace for Latin America.
ConWize – Israel
Conwize is a cloud-based platform that simplifies the bidding and cost estimation process in the tender phase, to protect your company against crucial mistakes.
Coolbrook – Finland
Coolbrook has developed a revolutionary rotating machinery technology to decarbonise the heavy industry through electrification.
Ecomedes, Inc. – United States
Ecomedes, Inc. is a climate tech company on a mission to accelerate the adoption of sustainable products for commercial buildings by making them easy to find, evaluate, and specify.
ecoworks – Germany
ecoworks is innovation leader in design & installation of prefabricated energy efficiency retrofits for owners of old, energy-wasting multi-story apartment houses in Europe.
EMerald Geomodelling – Norway
EMerald Geomodelling is dedicated to revealing ground conditions through AI to enable sustainable infrastructure planning with reduced geological risk.
eMOD – United States
eMOD is a proactive and collaborative construction safety platform.
Exodigo – United States
Exodigo is the new gold standard for non-intrusive discovery.
Faber Technologies – Canada
Faber Connect is a b2b marketplace connecting construction workers with construction firms.
Flexcavo – Germany
Flexcavo automates workflows for contractors and rental companies through an end-to-end software solution for machinery, people and materials.
Frontline – Singapore
Construction schedule & resources optimization software.
Gropyus – Austria
GROPYUS creates sustainable and affordable living for everyone. The company delivers buildings as turnkey products focusing on people’s needs and conserving the planet’s resources.
Harcourt Technologies – Ireland
Our vision is to use 3DCP to develop and deliver sustainable construction systems that harness the potential of advanced manufacturing technologies.
iNex Circular – France
iNex Circular is a digital platform that enables you to find outlets for your excavated land, to connect local waste producers and recyclers, or to detect solar projects.
KAMBIO – Mexico/United States
KAMBIO is an online platform that allows you to design, build and buy your home.
Kollabo – Switzerland
Kollabo – the deep job platform for skilled blue-collar workers in construction.
Loris – United States
Loris provides WiFi connectivity, security, safety, and automatic data capture to industrial job sites using portable, battery-powered, light-towers.
MAA’VA – United States
MAA’VA is developing the next generation of green building materials that can functionally replace concrete for a sustainable future.
Materially – United States
Materially is an end-to-end procurement and supply chain platform that connects buyers, suppliers and haulers of heavy construction materials.
MIXTERESTING – Austria
Our digital mixing master helps to develop CO2 friendly concrete 10x faster through virtual simulation of promising concrete mixtures.
Mobbot – Switzerland
Mobbot develops new technologies for the digitalization of spraying concrete processes in tunnel and underground constructions.
NUQLEA – Argentina
NUQLEA created the first digital platform that brings together entrepreneurs, NGOs, SMEs, unions, government entities, banks, fintech companies, educational centers, and logistics companies.
oculai – Germany
oculai is automating the documentation of progress and processes on construction sites using cameras and AI.
The Link – United States
Rethinking construction specifications, from design to execution and back again.
Vizcab – France
Vizcab is a SaaS platform to measure and manage construction projects’ embodied carbon emissions.
Waste Robotics – Canada
Waste Robotics integrates advanced waste handling processes, computer vision, deep learning algorithms and state-of-the-art robotic technologies to enable smaller, more precise, safer and more profitable waste recycling facilities.
WtEnergy – Spain
WtEnergy uses advanced thermochemical conversion technologies for the substitution of fossil fuels in direct thermal applications.
