Canadian construction software company Bridgit announced the close of a $7 million funding round led by Autodesk with participation from Salesforce Ventures, StandUp Ventures, Sands Capital, and Export Development Canada (EDC). Bridgit was founded in 2013 by CEO Mallorie Brodie and COO Lauren Lake and integrates the data contractors and construction site managers need to understand current demand and plan for the future.
“In the span of the past five years or so, construction site managers have grown to expect integrated solutions so data can flow between other construction technology companies,” Lake told VentureBeat in a phone interview.
As part of the deal, Bridgit will integrate with solutions from Autodesk Construction Cloud, whose Construction IQ uses AI to evaluate safety and regulatory compliance — based on 150 million construction process observations.
The funding will be used for product development, research and development initiatives, and continued investment with different partners in the construction landscape. The Bridgit Bench workforce planning product is also preparing to grow its forecasting capabilities.
Bridgit Bench considers factors like workforce utilization rates, hiring needs, profit, and contracts under management and aims for projections that can look farther into the future.
“We are very actively working on improving forecasting within our product so construction companies don’t just have a view of what their project allocations are and their people needs are today, but they’re able to forecast up to five years into the future and get some recommendations on which individuals may be a good fit for that job based on availability and skill set,” Brodie said.
Bridgit currently has 50 employees and is based in the Ontario region of Waterloo, Canada. The company has raised $15.7 million to date.
Construction AI startups are also exploring ways to automate construction sites with robotics, drones, computer vision, and data. Other startups working to digitize data for construction startups or power AI solutions include Indus.ai, Disperse, and OnSiteIQ.