Welcoming Brighter Days
Welcome back! Handshakes, face-to-face meetings, optimism, and growth seem to be re-emerging all around us, and we couldn’t be happier about it. While we haven’t had the chance to see many of you in some time, we are deeply grateful for and humbled by the consistent, dedicated effort of so many of you to continue delivering A Better Built World despite the pandemic’s many obstacles.
As you will read below, our portfolio companies continue to deliver incredible impacts all across the design, build, and operate lifecycle by reshaping and improving how we experience the spaces we inhabit. Broadly speaking, this past year of challenges seems to have given everyone a deeper sense of their connection to — and needs for — our built environment. We welcome this greater awareness, as it provides fertile ground for our entrepreneurs and other founders in the space to build incredible businesses while radically improving how we deliver and operate our built world. While we’ve been talking about it for five years now, there is increasingly widespread recognition that “buildings,” or rather the improvement of them, hold the potential to solve so many of society’s problems, from affordability to sustainability. As you will see in our most recent investments, we are fortunate to partner with incredible teams who are transforming this potential into reality. If you know of or are working with others who fit this description, please send them our way.
As we look towards the second half of 2021, the BV team is back to booking plane tickets and visiting startups, and we hope to see you along the way. In the meantime, please enjoy some of our highlights of the past few months.
Investment Updates
Our Investment in Aeroseal
Aeroseal Founder & CEO Amit Gupta and his team are improving air quality and reducing energy consumption by effectively sealing buildings. We were excited to participate in their Series A! Read more.
Our Investment in GoContractor
GoContractor’s software platform enables offsite training and certification so that all construction workers can arrive onsite ready to work. We were thrilled to co-lead their Series A with Ironspring Ventures! Read more.
Our Latest Investment in Dandelion Energy
We joined Dandelion’s Series B financing led by our friends at Breakthrough Energy. We’re proud to continue partnering with Dandelion as the company works to create a better built world! Read more.
BV News & Activity
Ceillie Clark-Keane joins the team!
We’ve added a Building Ventures team member! As Head of Marketing, Ceillie will be leading our brand and marketing efforts — including sending these newsletters moving forward. Read our conversation about why Ceillie joined BV, what she’s most excited about, and more here.
Earlier this year, CRETI named Building Ventures the Construction Tech VC of the Year. Read more here.
Jesse joined BVIN member Phil Bernstein’s Exploring New Value in Design Practice course at the Yale School of Architecture last month when he served as a reviewer for the students’ final projects.
Travis joined The Propcast podcast to talk with host Lousia Dickins and other proptech industry leaders about digital fundraising and Revelation 2021. Listen here.
Commercial Observer reported on recent investments in proptech designed to create green buildings. Heather shared her perspectives on the massive opportunity to create technology that reduces emissions and inefficiencies across the lifecycle of a building. Read the article here.
Gregg participated in the Drastic Summit panel discussion on “An Investor’s Perspective & Trends in Construction,” alongside Michelle Killoran of OMERS Ventures, Kaustubh Pandya of Brick & Mortar Ventures, and Chris Stephenson of Concrete VC. Check out some highlights from the event.
Allen hosted a BVIN webinar series featuring our portfolio companies. This spring, he spoke with Ian Keough and Tyler Goss of Hypar, Andrew Zukoski of Join, and Josh Kanner of Smartvid.io.
Portfolio News & Activity
75F Selected for Google’s First Climate Change Accelerator 🍾
With access to Google resources, 75F will use this program to deploy its IOT-based building management system in more buildings worldwide. Learn more here.
In the Press
🏆 Measurabl received both the 2021 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award and the Sustained Excellence Award. Read more about these honors here.
enVerid announced that former congressman Joe Kennedy III joined its board of directors, and this was reported in the The Boston Globe. 👋
Join Digital makes the BuiltWorlds Building Tech 50 List. 🍾
⚡ Blokable was featured in a CNBC piece diving into modular construction as the best solution to solving the nation’s affordable housing problem.
Built Robotics 🤖 is partnering with Mortenson on renewable energy projects.
Autodesk featured Smartvid.io in its roundup 4 Innovations Transforming Construction Safety. 🦺
Musings
🌱Dandelion Co-founder and TED Fellow Kathy Hannun talks about The Renewable Energy System Right Below Your Feet.
🎧 GoContractor’s John Naughton appeared on the Construction Futures podcast to talk about jobsite safety and onboarding.
Canoa CEO Federico Negro participated in Stanford’s 2021 Industrialized Construction Forum. He spoke about his vision of adaptive reuse for parking lots. 🏗️
Join.build CEO Andrew Zukoski shared his predictions for planning in construction in his article Preconstruction: Past, Present and Possibilities. 🔮
🎧 Ian Keough of Hypar joined the AEC Hive podcast to discuss innovation in the built environment.
