Fresh off a $17 million funding round, a fast-growing Greater Cincinnati tech startup has announced a pair of acquisitions to help broaden its reach.
Stack Construction Technologies, a Blue Ash-based construction tech startup, said Tuesday it has acquired Bid Retriever and K-Ops, based in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and Montreal, respectively.
Terms were not disclosed.
Phil Ogilby, Stack’s co-founder and CEO, said the moves allow the company to further expand its software platform, which helps subcontractors and contractors manage projects.
Bid Retriever is a management system that streamlines the bid invitation process for subcontractors, while K-Ops is a construction management and collaboration software.
“We’ve built a very successful organization, so for us, it’s about expanding where we can add value and then plugging it into our machine,” Ogilby told me last week.
The acquisitions were fueled by Stack’s most recent raise. It’s also the company’s second and third such deal in less than a year.
Earlier this month, the company landed $17 million in new funding earlier this month, led by Level Equity, a New York and San Francisco-based private investment firm. And in June, Stack acquired SmartUse Solutions, also based in Montreal.
Ogilby said acquiring K-Ops allows Stack to “really bolt on” and add more capability to SmartUse.
Bid Retriever, meanwhile, allows the company to double down on its preconstruction offerings.
Stack is carving out a unique niche in the industry by catering largely to the subcontractor community. Ogilby called the market potential “enormous.”
The company’s cloud-based preconstruction software allows for blueprint measuring and takeoff, or the process of determining how much of each material is needed to complete a job, as well as cost estimating and more.
With the acquisitions, Stack said it now provides end-to-end support — from the time subcontractors start relationships with clients to submitting and winning a bid to operating on the jobsite and closing out projects.
“Subcontractors face pressure to be extremely accurate and flexible,” Justin Ogilby, Stack’s chief product officer, said in a release. “They need tools specific to their business.”
Ogilby said Stack's product team will soon fully integrate Bid Retriever and K-Ops. A Stack spokesperson said Bid Retriever and K-Ops teams have already joined the company, and that leadership from each will continue in a product ownership capacity.
Stack, founded in 2012, has been in high-growth mode for several years. The company has ranked as one of the region’s fastest-growing firms for five years in a row, with $8.9 million in revenue in 2020, a 86% increase over 2018. The company also ranked No. 2,696 on the Inc. 5000 in 2021.
Stack currently employs 140. The company hopes to increase its headcount to 200 within the next 12 months.
