Cleveland tech venture OnStation has raised $8.5 million for its mobile application that tells road-building contractors and workers where they are located on job sites and in their respective projects.
The funding round was led by JumpStart Ventures in Cleveland, the venture-capital division of venture developer JumpStart Inc., and included participation from VisionTech Partners, Frontier Angels, Up2 Opportunity Fund, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund, Next Chapter Ventures, North Coast Ventures, New Dominion Angels and other angel investors, the company said Monday.
Formally known as Projitech Inc., the company developed its digital-stationing platform for civil engineering. The product lets road construction workers access "stationing" — the horizontal measurements along the center line of a road project, usually every 100 feet — as well as design layers and plans through a mobile app that centralizes communication about their projects.
OnStation was created in the living room of a former Ohio Department of Transportation engineer in 2014, according to the company's website. The idea was to create a tool that answered the annoying questions "Where are you?" and "What are you doing?" during road construction projects.
OnStation serves DOT clients and more than 200 contractors in multiple states and integrates with major industry software to streamline communication and data management.
"Ninety-six percent of construction data is unstructured and unused, while workers spend 18% of their time finding data," said Patrick Russo, OnStation's CEO and a serial entrepreneur, in a statement. "OnStation's solution is essential for improving efficiency and accuracy."
OnStation's Series A investment is aimed at enabling the company to accelerate its growth strategy, including expanding its market presence across the United States and continuing to innovate its platform to meet the evolving needs of the heavy highway industry.
"Our solution has the potential to be used in every road project in the country, and this investment is allowing us to scale to meet the incredible demand," Russo said.
