COMSTRUCT raises $ 13 million to simplify the process of contracting for construction companies

When you think of platforms in the construction industry, concrete slabs are likely to support steel beams and high poles will come first. Launch based in Munich Comstruct He wants to design a different type of platform for the construction industry – a software platform.

COMSTRUCT is basically a public procurement platform for building materials. For large -scale projects, orders for material processing can take a long time, as materials suppliers still print delivery notes and invoices. Orders are often placed on the phone and it can be difficult to reconcile invoices and create comprehensive data reports.

And the launch announces a round of 12.5 million euros ($ 13 million in current currency courses) led by GV and 20VC, with existing Booom and Puzzle Ventures investors investing again.

“Today, the process of public procurement in construction is very analog. You can make a phone call to order 10 cubic meters next Thursday. You then get a physical note on the delivery of the site, which is then entered on an Excel sheet, “Co -Co -Co -CEO of Comstruct, Henrik Mainehard, told TechCrunch. “And then they sometimes sent him to the headquarters, where they then manually compare invoices with receipts.”

Each material provider can build their own order processing application, but the problem is that contractors do not want to handle 100 different applications to obtain documents. This is where Comstruct enters with its platform, which can combine these processes.

First, COMSTRUCT connects with the general contractors to understand how they receive their materials, as they usually work with countless suppliers depending on the location of construction sites and other specific needs.

“We approach these suppliers of materials. We call them and ask them: How can you share the data? Do you have an EDI interface? Do you have an email in which you can forward the information? Do you have a customer portal that we can scrape to find materials? And then we structure the information, “Mainehard said.

The start then uses machine training to integrate any supplier on its platform. “This technical improvement has allowed us to integrate 800 material providers over the last two years, which is already a very significant amount,” Minenhard said.

In addition to this layer of data, Comstruct has built four modules around an order, digital delivery receipts, invoices and ESG reporting. The launch works on a pricing model based on use, with a simple document pricing strategy.

“With (the Corporate Sustainability Directive) in Europe (contractors) must announce how many materials have passed into construction projects. So far, they have not known how specific they used (…) that this is a number they did not have, “Mainhard said.

COMSTRUCT competing Coho in the US and QFLOW In the UK, but every competitor has its own positioning. According to Meinhardt, Kojo “focuses much more on the public procurement country”, while QFLOW “focuses a lot on waste management.”

Initially, the company started working in Switzerland because Mainhard studied there. Comstruct claims that there is already a good coverage of the material industry in this country and already has 70% to 80% of the requested suppliers on its platform. The company is currently expanding to Germany, Austria and other European countries depending on construction projects.

Some large -scale construction sites have already used Comstruct to manage construction materials, including several tunnel projects, a highway project in Stockholm and a large train project in Munich. For example, the Gotthard tunnel project in Switzerland (pictured above) relies on Comstruct to process all delivery notes and connect them to invoices.