Munich-based start-up firm Comstruct has raised $13m in investment to support its software platform aimed at digitising construction materials procurement
For large-scale projects in particular, processing orders for construction materials can be time-consuming, with orders placed over the phone and printed delivery notes making it difficult to reconcile invoices and compile comprehensive data.
Comstruct approaches material suppliers to and ask how they can share data, if they have an EDI interface, if there is an email to forward information and if they have a customer portal that can be scraped for information.
Its platform then uses machine learning to integrate hundreds of supplies on to its platform, adding 800 over the last two years, Techcrunch reports.
Its also has four modules around ordering, digital delivery receipts, invoice reconciliation and ESG reporting.
The funding round was led by GV and 20VC, along with existing backers Booom and Puzzle Ventures investing again.
“Today, the procurement process of materials in construction is very analogue,” Comstruct co-founder and CEO Henric Meinhardt told TechCrunch.
“You could place a phone call to order 10 cubic meters next Thursday. Then you get a physical delivery note on the site that is then typed out into an Excel sheet,”
“And then they’d sometimes send it via post to the headquarters, where they then manually compare invoices to the receipts.”
Comstruct claims to have good coverage of the materials industry in Switzerland, and it has 70% to 80% of requested suppliers on its platform already. The company is currently expanding to Germany, Austria and other European countries depending on construction projects.
Large-scale projects that have used Comstruct to manage the procurement of construction materials include the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland, a highway project in Stockholm, Sweden, and a major rail scheme in Munich, Germany.
