Announcing our Latest Investment: Condoit (Seed)
We are thrilled to announce our seed investment in Condoit, building software for electricians.
At a time when we need to ‘electrify everything’, it is the electricians who will be implementing this global transition on the ground. Yet despite these pressing needs, the technological tools available to electricians have lagged behind other industries. We can’t imagine a better person to build a category-defining company than former electrician Ian Hoppe, who launched Condoit to solve personal frustrations with the lack of software tools in the field. Condoit is a pioneering collaborative platform for electrical design and analysis.
Fontinalis is excited to join the $4.25M round led by The Westly Group, with significant support from new and existing partners including Navitas Capital, C2 Ventures, Studio Management, and Overline Venture Capital.
A Former Electrician Building The Software Tools He Wishes He Had
Condoit CEO & founder Ian Hoppe is based out of Birmingham, Alabama and has deep personal experience with the electrical industry, spending years “bending pipe and pulling wire” working in the oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, hospital systems, and sprawling data centers. It’s a family affair for Ian, as he was raised by an electrical power systems design engineer. Inspired by his experiences and family background in electrical power systems design, Ian founded Condoit to address the inefficiencies he personally encountered in the field. His vision for Condoit is deeply tied to improving the trade and supporting a major industry boom by providing modern technological solutions to long-standing challenges for electricians.
Introducing Condoit: Modern Software For Electricians
Condoit is a platform dedicated to digitizing the commercial electrical industry. Electrical work has traditionally been done largely on pen and paper, which has limited the industry’s ability to digitize and streamline its processes. Condoit is poised to change this for a verticalized industry hungry for modern software solutions.
Condoit allows electricians to seamlessly build a digital representation of the electrical systems in the field, and storing this data in the cloud enables comprehensive and adaptive design on the fly. Electricians are able to use Condoit’s mobile app in the field to capture photos, conduct site walks, and remotely log data. Electrical firms leverage this field data for seamless cloud-based design and analysis. The platform also helps commercial electrical customers collect, record, and share engineering and electrical data with subcontractors.
Condoit is already live in the field across a wide range of electrical contractor customers, delivering mission-critical software capabilities in the field. The lightbulb for us went off when we learned more about their work with Miller Electric (see: Miller Electric case study “Miller EV Solutions Expedites EV Charger Installation with Condoit Mobile App”) — demonstrating the scalability and value proposition for enterprise electrical contractors. We believe this will continue to scale across new enterprise customers and unlock new product capabilities.
A Critical Time For Electricians
In the past year, we’ve seen the re-emergence of skilled trade professions among workers; however, the technology and innovation in supporting that transition has lagged. Recent articles have highlighted the critical challenges ahead for electricians: America Is Trying to Electrify. There Aren’t Enough Electricians (WSJ), The Great Electrician Shortage (The New Yorker), and Ditch Your Desk Job to Become an Electrician (Fast Company). We are glad that electricians are getting the spotlight they deserve and believe that Condoit can help bring more efficiency to the demanding day-to-day of electricians on the front lines of electrification and the energy transition. In this spirit, Condoit functions as a workforce development tool as well — digitizing electrical system processes makes this profession more accessible, modern, and attractive to a new generation of electrical workers.
Why We’re Particularly Excited At Fontinalis
- Just as software entered the construction industry in the past decade, we see an opportunity for Condoit to become the category-defining company bringing software to electricians.
- Condoit has already demonstrated some very interesting network effects: spreading like a vine from electrical contractor to electrical contractor (and also within affiliated subcontractor networks) with strong customer satisfaction. We have been monitoring Condoit since Amy first connected with the company out of the 2020 Techstars Alabama EnergyTech program, and it has been amazing seeing this company start to hit its stride and scale.
- We love investing in second-order effect companies that may have an underappreciated role in the value chain. In this case, it is a critical time for electricians and it’s about time they are equipped with modern software.
- With the announcement of this seed round Ian shared “I’ve known this industry my whole life and love it with all of my heart. I think it’s time someone built modern technology for this essential sector.” It’s hard to beat that level of passion, domain expertise, and vision.
We are very grateful that we get to partner with Ian Hoppe and the Condoit team on this journey to redefine electrical work for a digital age.
