Israeli startup SiteAware, which has its U.S. headquarters in Houston, has raised $15 million in Series B funding, the company announced Jan. 26.
Vertex Ventures Israel led the funding round with participation from existing investors Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, Axon Ventures, Oryzn Capital, The Flying Object and lool Ventures. SiteAware did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment Jan. 26.
Founded in 2015, SiteAware offers an artificial intelligence-powered platform called Digital Construction Verification. The company gathers data from project plans to create a “digital twin” of a development; project stakeholders then utilize drone technology to photograph a project’s real-time progress and compare it to the digital twin created by SiteAware. That allows project principals to find and remedy or even preempt costly construction errors, according to the company’s website. Historically, companies have relied on manual construction verification using photographs taken by building inspectors — a costly process that can take hundreds of hours.
"Given the complexity inherent in today’s building processes due to the number of people involved, construction errors and the resulting need for rework are an ever-increasing problem,” SiteAware CEO Zeev Braude said in the company's Jan. 26 announcement.
The startup will seek to use the funding in part to make DCV the industrywide standard for American construction and to grow its industry presence, it said. Already, its customer base includes over 40 developers and general contractors, including Houston-based developer Hines.
The company previously raised a $10 million Series A round in October 2020 and has raised $30 million to date. At the time, technology news site VentureBeat reported, SiteAware’s platform was being utilized at around 20 ongoing construction projects worth a combined $5 billion in the United States.
