Revolution Ventures announced a $5 million investment in San Diego-based eSUB Construction Software. eSUB is a construction tech startup that offers a software platform for subcontractors to help manage projects, essentially digitizing what is normally a paperwork-intensive industry.
"There are always changes to a project as soon as it starts. The problem is when those changes happen paper documents don't change," Revolution partner Bobby Ocampo told DC Inno in an interview. "Digitizing it protects subcontractors when there's a dispute or an audit or if it goes to court. Kind of like an insurance policy for subcontractors."
eSub's software has been a part of a lot of major buildings already. The Facebook and Apple headquarters in San Francisco and Freedom Tower in New York City all were built by subcontractors relying on the eSUB platform. It might not seem like a big deal to switch from paper to digital form, but Ocampo described it as a major overhaul of the standard system."
"Construction tends to lag other industries in using high tech," Ocampo said. "A lot was basically done on napkins. The next generation in the industry, the millennials were hungry for it."
eSUB, founded by long-time veterans of the industry, got connected to Revolution thanks in part to an old colleague of Ocampo's from back in his days as an investment banker. But, the fact that the company is already profitable and scaling was a central attraction to Revolution in terms of potential investment, as was its base in San Diego, one of the 'Rise of the Rest' cities that Revolution co-founder Steve Case likes to tout didn't hurt either.
"San Diego is a city with a lot of great ideas, but not a lot of venture capital," Ocampo said. "The company needs to market to scale, so [the investment] will scale up sales and marketing and build out new partnerships. This kind of vertical SaaS is a theme that resonates with us and can change any industry."
