Construction Tech Startup IngeniousIO Brings in $4M To Build Out Product, Sales Team

Construction management software startup IngeniousIO has locked in $4M of funding in a round led by American Family Ventures.

Follow Crunchbase News on Twitter

The premise behind the Chicago-based company is the belief that construction workflows are fragmented, especially for a $10 trillion industry built on collaboration. The use of a variety of disparate point solutions only exacerbates the problem, according to IngeniousIO Founder and CEO Nick Carter.

Carter started an information security company at the age of 23 and ultimately ended up as an investor in a concrete company. As a result, he saw firsthand the “massive inefficiencies” in the construction industry. Carter combined that hands-on experience with his tech background to launch IngeniousIO in 2016.

“I could see how companies were buying all these applications but none of those applications could talk to each other,” he told Crunchbase News. “I decided it was easier to custom develop a solution to streamline the entire process, from RFPs to project completion.”

The company’s platform uses artificial intelligence to redefine the process of construction projects by creating what Carter describes “a unifying, data-driven approach.”

“IngeniousIO does not intend to disrupt construction,” said Carter, who is also a former Cisco Systems engineer. “The industry is already in pieces, and therein lies the problem. From PMs to sewer subcontractors, many groups have to work together efficiently to complete a building. Digitizing documents only uploads the mess to the Internet. IngeniousIO galvanizes the business of construction by connecting the entire process.”

IngeniousIO is one of a slew of startups focused strictly on developing technologies to make construction projects go more smoothly while increasing productivity and efficiencies. Funding in North American construction technology startups surged by 318 percent to $581.6 million in 2017 compared with $182.7 million in 2013, according to Crunchbase data.

IngeniousIO’s offering allows for each party involved on a project to make data available for AI processing. All parties can view job site information in real time. Accountants can see costs accruing as they happen, and contractors can be paid faster due to the fact that all the data is readily available for immediate review within the platform, according to Carter.

An example of how antiquated the construction industry can be can found in architecture, he said.

“Many architects are using sophisticated software to do their designs, but when it comes to everything else, it’s essentially back to pen and paper,” he said. “One of the reasons we’re not seeing a massive swing in innovation in the construction industry is that any efficiencies gained are negated by the redundancies of having to enter data between systems. So in a way, all these new applications are making the problem of fragmentation worse.”

The 15-person company is planning to use the money raised to accelerate product development and continue hiring to build out its sales and customer implementation organizations. That hiring, Carter said, includes former employees of e-Builder and Textura, which was acquired by Oracle.