Pi Labs’ investment in Symterra
The ‘Slack’ for construction sites
We are happy to share that we have invested in Symterra’s $1.7 million seed round, which was led by Samaipata, along with Nemetschek and Accel.
Background to our investment
The construction industry represents roughly $12 trillion annually in output, but it is still one of the most undigitised industries in the world — according to a study done by McKinsey in 2016, construction was the 2nd least digitised industry in the world, only ahead of Agriculture and Hunting. And one of the core problems it has lies with the unsurmountable costs that the industry faces, with over 30% of construction costs being related to re-work and delays, as a result of miscommunication on site.
Furthermore, the global construction and design software market is growing at an accelerated pace and is expected to reach $19.1 billion in 2028, from $9.98 billion in 2022 at a CAGR of8.5%, according to Grandview Research. There are certainly a lot of competitors in this space that are trying to tackle the problem from a developer or general contractor (GC) point of view, but we hadn’t found many that were taking the side of the people that actually work on site and that have to deal with issues urgently. We felt that, despite the great solutions out there, no one was giving workers a voice.
How did the investment come about
We had looked at construction process companies from a larger business perspective, but found that it was a crowded space. Similarly to our investment in MOONHUB, we were introduced to Sarah and John through our Future VC intern, Georgina Nwabueze, and they were trying to tackle this problem from the opposite lens, by helping ‘Dom’ (their fictional worker for pitching purposes) communicate and understand what was happening around him in a construction site. Sarah and John had launched Symterra less than a year before and had already managed to sign pilots with major companies who were interested not only in having a better understanding of what was happening in the construction site, but also empowering their workers to do so.
🤝🏿 Source of intro: Georgina Nwabueze, who joined us from the Future VC Programme.
An overview of the company
Industry — Construction Tech
Location — London, United Kingdom
Founding year — 2020
Problem — Lack of communication in construction sites tends to result in delays and errors that could be avoided
Solution — Symterra has built a platform that is designed to eliminate uncertainty in the construction industry through communication, collaboration and visibility
Why we invested
We spent the last 6 months working closely with Sarah and John, first in the lead up to our investment and then through our own Growth Programme. Our initial assumption that these two founders knew exactly the problem they were trying to solve — both of them have a background in construction and both have lost projects due to miscommunication — was thoroughly confirmed and, more than anything, their thirst for learning and taking our advice on board showed us they deeply cared about the problem they are trying to solve.
What’s next
Symterra has raised this round is to continue to grow the team, launch a freemium subscription and expand the platform, as they have significant demand from current clients and are looking at opportunities in new regions.
The journey with Sarah and John as been a great learning experience for them but also for us at Pi Labs, and we have seen how much founders can grow themselves when they believe in what they are building and really want to solve a problem they faced themselves. We are honoured to be part of this round and can’t wait for what comes next!
For more updates from the team and our portfolio, subscribe to our monthly newsletter ✉️
