Balfour Beatty has invested £10m in Pi Labs’ Fund IV, aiming to accelerate access to early-stage technology shaping infrastructure delivery.
The infrastructure group’s strategic investment in the venture capital fund and platform is intended to strengthen its access to emerging technologies that could improve productivity, delivery certainty, safety, and performance across major infrastructure projects.
By working with entrepreneurs across the UK, US and Europe at an early stage, Balfour Beatty said it would be able to identify relevant innovations sooner, build targeted partnerships and explore how practical technologies can be tested and applied across its construction projects worldwide.
The move comes as investment in critical infrastructure accelerates across energy, water, defence, transport and digital connectivity, with the industry under pressure to find better ways to deliver with greater certainty and efficiency.
The investment supports Balfour Beatty’s Evolve, Energise and Explore strategic growth plan, and forms part of the Group’s wider focus on improving how infrastructure is planned, delivered, maintained and operated.
Philip Hoare, group chief executive at Balfour Beatty, said: “Productivity is one of the defining challenges – and greatest opportunities – facing our industry. To deliver the scale and complexity of infrastructure our customers and communities need, we have to keep finding better ways to work.
“Our investment in Pi Labs will give us earlier access to entrepreneurs and technologies that could improve delivery, build capability and capacity and create long-term value. This is a strategic investment in practical innovation, focused on the partnerships and insight our key markets need for the years ahead.”
Since its founding, Pi Labs has made more than 100 investments across 15 countries. Its platform gives corporates operating across the built environment value chain access to a global pipeline of early-stage companies developing solutions in areas including artificial intelligence, data and robotics. The latest fund will invest in up to 50 early-stage startups aiming to scale globally from the UK, Europe and North America.
Faisal Butt, founder and managing partner at Pi Labs, said: “Balfour Beatty’s commitment reflects a shared belief that technology and AI can improve how the built environment is designed, delivered, maintained and operated.
“Our ambition is to accelerate innovation across the sector and back the entrepreneurs working on some of its biggest challenges – from productivity and performance to sustainability and resilience.
“With Balfour Beatty’s support, we can help connect promising technologies with the infrastructure projects and industry expertise needed to test, scale and apply them in the real world.”
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