Why Armilar invested in Cintoo…
… and a few insights on cloud computing for 3D spatial data
Cloud computing changed everything.
The efficiency and agility that cloud computing offers, enabling companies to avoid the burden of investing and maintaining IT infrastructure and to use the internet to offload their data storage and computing power needs onto servers managed by companies specialized in offering cloud services such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, coupled with the progress in the availability and quality (bandwidth and reliability) of communications, has transformed — and created — whole industries. Large corporates have become more agile at developing products and have found new ways to better serve their customers. Small startups have become able to create and launch innovative products and to experiment by renting cloud capacity rather than needing to spend large amounts to acquire infrastructure upfront. Enterprise workers, their customers and consumers have become accustomed to accessing useful data and functionality through the internet and have come to expect the ability to access it seamlessly. Companies take advantage of the cloud to store and process their business data. Even those that are more conscious (or cautious) about their data have adopted the cloud computing principles setting up private or hybrid clouds. Almost every industry has adopted and benefited from cloud computing. Even individual users have come to rely on cloud services for their file management needs, putting their files on services such as DropBox or iCloud to ensure an easy access to them, as well as not having to worry about personal backups anymore.
Still, some specific data types and uses have not (yet) fully benefited from the cloud revolution. Some areas remain ripe for disruption. And they can unlock significant value if the barriers to cloud adoption that they have faced can be torn down. That is the case, for example, when data volumes are too big to be easily uploaded to / downloaded from the cloud and when the complexity and sophistication of the tools to manipulate that data can’t be easily offered through the cloud without sacrificing the smoothness of the user experience.
The manipulation of 3D spatial data is one of such areas. Each time a 3D laser scan is made of a building under construction, or of a large industrial facility, for example, it generates gigabytes or even terabytes of data related to the “point cloud” — simplistically, the set of hundreds of millions (in each single capture) of points located in the 3D space that is read by the scanner. Each new generation of scanner brings an increase in the number of points and an improvement in the accuracy of the reading. Making matters worse, each type/brand of scanner produces data with different characteristics and sometimes under different standards, making interoperability an additional challenge. Preserving that data and its accuracy is key to produce a reliable “Digital Twin” of the scanned facility, which can be used for multiple planning and design purposes, from detecting defects to making measurements and planning changes to a facility. Manipulating that accurate data requires sophisticated 3D graphic visualization tools. Hence, once a scan is produced, this has been the realm of very sophisticated software – CAD (computer-aided design) systems and BIM (building information modeling) systems –, built for very specialized users, residing in dedicated workstations for a very reserved group of specialists. 3D spatial data has remained siloed; it has not yet been broken free by cloud computing. Or has it?
Enter Cintoo.
A couple of weeks ago, Cintoo announced Armilar’s investment in the company’s Series A funding, alongside proptech specialist fund Amavi Capital and also with the participation of Accenture Ventures, as well as other prior investors in the company.
It is in the French Riviera that Cintoo has quietly been developing proprietary technology that enables 3D spatial data to break free and take full advantage of what the cloud has to offer. Based on years of research, Cintoo’s patented hardware-agnostic technology enables a point cloud dataset resulting from a 3D scan to be compressed at the source to such an extent that it can be easily uploaded to Cintoo Cloud — the company’s cloud platform. Once in Cintoo Cloud, Cintoo offers a sophisticated visualization and collaboration web application, along with highly advanced data handling techniques, that enables anyone, anywhere, to access and manipulate that data using a simple web browser, anytime, on any laptop, any mobile device, or even in a VR device. Better yet, the data in Cintoo Cloud can be downloaded to the clients’ BIM systems without (and this is very important!) any loss of accuracy vs. the originally scanned data.
This is nothing short of groundbreaking.
It means that, using Cintoo’s technology, the scans that capture the as-built conditions of a physical space, such as a building construction area, a factory or a plant, become widely accessible and easily interpretable, by experts and non-experts alike. It means that teams working on retrofit, construction or simulation projects (who are not necessarily the expert CAD/BIM users who used to be the sole persons with access to that information) can design or control work remotely without needing to visit the space. This opens up multiple use cases for that data that, until now, were impossible to achieve. Think of a building contractor easily allowing his client to view what is being built, quickly, and collaborate on needed adjustments. Think of the potential for collaboration between designers, engineers, architects, planners, consultants, technical specialists and end users of the space. Think, for example, allowing an external equipment vendor to assess whether he can fit a new machine into a given space at a client’s facility.
With new use cases for the 3D data, also come new challenges, not the least of which is security. The interior of an industrial plant, for example, can be highly sensitive information that its owner would be legitimately conscious to open to the world. Cintoo Cloud was thought and designed from the ground up with these concerns in mind, allowing the clients to open the platform to all the users that they choose to invite, but setting up detailed access rights, enabling the set-up of specific work zones that they want specific users to have access to, and other features. Moreover, Cintoo abides to the highest standard of security processes in the development of their software, being certified as SOC2 Type II compliant.
All of this would be theoretical, of course, if it wasn’t for Cintoo’s early traction. And its early traction has been pretty impressive, and compelling for a VC investor like ourselves. Numerous customers (several of which are high-profile, well recognized global companies) were attracted to Cintoo’s offering, started uploading their scan data onto Cintoo Cloud and, clearly understanding how value-adding the product is, invited many users to take advantage of the availability of that data and meaningfully expanded the number of scanned sites on the platform. Today, Cintoo has approximately three billion square feet of laser scan data across 4,000 projects, and Cintoo Cloud is currently used by more than 20,000 users in BIM, construction and Industry 4.0 organizations across the US, Canada, Europe and APAC as a unique source of trustful reality data. Pretty impressive for a young product!
No ”Why we invested in…” article is complete without a few words on the team. In the case of Cintoo, rarely do we find a founding team with such a level of founder-market fit! With a technical team solidly grounded on the R&D work that was required to be able to build Cintoo Cloud, it is led by an industry veteran: Dominique Pouliquen, Cintoo’s CEO has built a track record in creating software tools in this space, and he has lived the pains of 3D scan data cumbersomeness while building a career at Autodesk, where he worked at after that company acquired his previous business, and which he left to join Cintoo. So, solid tech, years of industry exposure, first-hand experience in the problem being solved. What more can an investor ask for?
The Series A investment, bringing together a solid syndicate of complementary investors, will be leveraged to expand Cintoo Cloud with next generation features for asset management, progress monitoring and industrial metaverse exploration, as well as help Cintoo further expand its business in North America, Europe and APAC. For our part, we’re thrilled to join Cintoo in this journey!
Authored by Pedro Ribeiro Santos, Partner at Armilar Venture Partners
