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Investors eye startups focused on automating construction

AEC Tech

Investors eye startups focused on automating construction

Investors could reap big payoffs in an industry that experts say is ready for automation.


By By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor | July 15, 2019
Investors eye startups focused on automating construction

Photo: Pixabay 

   

Investors are pumping in billions of dollars into the construction technology sector, according to a Wall Street Journal report and Construction Dive

According to the report, research company CREtech found that venture capital investment in private construction technology firms increased from $352 million in 2016 to more than $6 billion in 2018. At the end of June, 2019 investments totaled more than $4 billion, signaling that capital investments into the sector this year could exceed those made in 2018.

Startups are poised to bring to market new technologies and techniques to raise construction efficiency. The products could help tame rising construction costs and address a persistent shortage of qualified trade workers.

Investors that make the right bets could reap big payoffs in an industry that experts say is ready for automation.

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3D Printing

3D-printed construction milestones take shape in Tennessee and Texas

Two notable 3D-printed projects mark milestones in the new construction technique of “printing” structures with specialized concrete. In Athens, Tennessee, Walmart hired Alquist 3D to build a 20-foot-high store expansion, one of the largest freestanding 3D-printed commercial concrete structures in the U.S. In Marfa, Texas, the world’s first 3D-printed hotel is under construction at an existing hotel and campground site.



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