Australian residential building software platform canibuild has raised $8m (£6m) in a Series A funding round led by EVP, with support from Regal Funds Management.
The funds are earmarked towards growth in Australia, New Zealand, and the US, with plans to expand into new markets.
Canibuild gives builders a simple and quick way to assess a site’s suitability for construction in real time.
The platform uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) with artificial intelligence (AI) to create an inclusive planning and design tool so a building sales team can take customers through design, viability and compliance in a visual way.
Founded in 2020 by Timothy and Stella Cocaro, Deepankur Malhotra and Shuvajeet Nag, the startup has quadrupled in size to more than 50 staff, with revenue growing at 20% month-on-month over the past year.
Stella Cocaro, co-founder and general manager at canibuild, commented: “Due to its hands-on nature, the residential construction industry has often been a laggard when it comes to the adoption of technology.
“However, purpose-built tech like ours is changing that for the better. We’re benefiting from this rising tide and the need for smarter operations in a market that’s under increasing pressure on margins.”
With more than 100,000 homes expected to be built in Australia over the next year, Cocaro said canibuild’s flexibility and the platform’s broad application opens it to the entire house and land packaging market.
Stella’s husband Timothy, canibuild’s CEO, said the majority of challenges faced during construction can be traced back to how a residence was first sold, the mismanagement of planning and the misalignment of client and builder expectations.
“We built canibuild to solve these problems. Our goal is to make life easier for everyone in the building process,” he said.
“canibuild helps both builders and their clients to instantly understand what can be done on a block of land. Physical site visits, drafting, surveying, estimating and a complex series of high friction steps are reduced to a point in time transaction through a digital environment.
“Rather than going back and forth for weeks, we give users the ability to see the project site virtually and contract instantly. This increased transparency dramatically reduces sales cycles and planning timelines which have historically been a significant burden on builders and their clients.”
Ben McCallum, portfolio Manager at Regal Funds Management, added: “canibuild streamlines what is often a highly iterative, multi-week sales process through its digital sales experience which aggregates and automates multiple steps in the customer journey whilst eliminating multiple bottlenecks in the process.
“It’s no surprise the resounding feedback from every builder we spoke to was of overwhelming praise.”
Image credit: Shutterstock/Franck Boston
Read next: Five ways augmented reality is changing the fabric of construction
Are you a building professional? Sign up for a FREE MEMBERSHIP to upload news stories, post job vacancies, and connect with colleagues on our secure social feed.
