In this day in age, it’s rare to find industries that have seen such little disruption. Nonetheless — the global construction market is worth $10 trillion, and accounts for almost 13% of global GDP, employing 7% of the world’s working population.(1)(2)

A GLOBAL INDUSTRY, RIPE FOR DISRUPTION

There are numerous indications that construction is an industry crying out for technological evolution. Being a labour-intensive industry, access to skilled workers can be difficult, and building sites are often geographically disperse. Projects typically run around 20 months over the estimated time, as well as up to 80% over budget. Paper is somehow the still main mean of storing information, and as a result, $10 billion is wasted globally due to information loss in project handovers. (3)(4)

While the last five years have seen some macro shifts — such as the increased availability of cheaper hardware tools, adoption of smartphones on-site, and data gathering to improve decision making — construction remains stuck in the pre-tech era. Despite large industries like manufacturing and agriculture seeing huge increases in productivity due to digitisation, the construction industry works largely how it’s always done, seeing only a 20% increase in efficiency in the past twenty years (1% per year!!!). In the digital era of today, this is no longer fit for purpose. (5)

ENTER CONSTRUYO

Construyo is a ConTech startup that is poised to revolutionise the construction industry with its holistic project management platform which takes the hassle, intransparency and unnecessary cost out of renovating and building properties.

Through the company’s network of trusted partners and its bespoke management platform, every stage of the project — from quotes, contracts, designs, plans to engineering certificates — can be accessed in one single, secure place by every party involved. This provides a greater level of transparency and connects the different stakeholders, allowing them to quickly and easily communicate with one another. With all stakeholders having control and oversight of a project at an early stage in the process, there are significantly fewer delays and surprise costs further down the line.

A WIN-WIN ALL ROUND

In our bottom-up research and landscape mapping, Construyo has emerged as a formidable solution to find skilled and experienced architects and engineers, take away the burden of administrative tasks from them, while providing a faster, cheaper and digital solution to the demand side — whether that’s a homeowner or a property developer. These verticals are also just the tip of the iceberg, as the company’s current goal is to build the largest software-enabled marketplace for the construction industry starting with Germany, which some estimates point to it being a €400 billion market by 2024.(6)

Construyo’s founders Leonhard Jeub and Fabian Mueller are providing a kind of service that both customers and partners have come to expect from modern businesses and services. The collaboration platform automates the back office work — which typically takes around 30% of an architect or engineer’s time — and speeds the process up for homeowners and developers, with data demonstrating that using Construyo makes the process up to 4x faster than going directly to an architect or engineer. For partners, it’s a win for business, it’s a win for productivity — and it’s a win in efficiency for everyone involved.

In short, Construyo’s mission is to bring the construction industry into the 21st Century; to take the hassle, intransparency and cost out of renovating and building properties, providing a continuous stream of jobs and easy-to-use digital tools to skilled professionals — so that they can focus on what they do best. They allow access to skilled workers at the right time, bridging the gap of disperse sites and parties with technology. We were instantly impressed by the vision of founders and the boldness of their goals, while maintaining a sharp focus on high ROI-generating expenses. We knew the capital would be well managed by them.

Having invested for years in PropTech, this is Talis’ first investment in the ConTech sub-vertical — and will sure be the first of many.

Check out the news announcing the company’s fundraise on TechCrunch, and the article on Medium.