New York-based Buildstock, a business-to-business marketplace and financial technology platform for construction materials, has secured pre-seed funding from Precursor Ventures, MGV, XFactor, and RefashionD, plus six angel investors. The platform empowers builders, contractors and their suppliers by streamlining material or product sales and procurement.
“Digital disruption has been the story of our generation and construction is one of the last holdouts for this type of innovation. There are enormous efficiencies to be unlocked in the construction industry and Buildstock is at the forefront of bringing these to life,” notes Precursor Ventures Founder and Managing Partner Charles Hudson. “We’re extremely proud of the team at Buildstock for the value they’ve been able to bring to market.”
Funding from his firm and fellow investors enables Buildstock to scale, expand third-party financial technology, and commence artificial intelligence or logistics integrations, while bringing in more marketplace participants. Late payments cost the construction materials industry an estimated $200 billion-plus in 2022, up sharply from the prior year. Buildstock’s marketplace and transaction solutions address the major cost factor by creating procurement efficiency. Builders and contractors using the platform enjoy AI-driven product discovery, as well as substantial cost savings on materials and faster lead times. Additionally, they find transparency into lead times and tracking information to plan around product or material deliveries. Buildstock is also programming a feature that takes blueprint files and uses AI tools to generate a list of needed supplies, further streamlining the procurement process.
“Buildstock is spearheading a digital revolution in the construction sector, breaking through the old, fragmented, and relationship-dependent procurement models with a modern, user-friendly marketplace and flexible financing options,” says Turner Construction Chief Innovation Officer Jim Barrett. “The construction industry stands at the cusp of a significant transformation, with the supply chain procurement process ripe for disruption. We need innovative solutions like Buildstock to streamline material sourcing, offer cost efficiencies, and also inject unprecedented transparency into project management through real time life-cycle tracking of materials procurement from order to delivery.”
Buildstock offers suppliers fast, predictable payments, instead of the standard 90 to 120 days they normally wait to get paid. The firm uses factoring and pays suppliers within five days of delivery. The expedited transaction cycle is part of Buildstock’s cash flow innovation for the industry, which significantly improves suppliers’ unit economics, manufacturing capacities, overhead and insurance outlays.
“The construction industry is ripe for innovation and one of the last to adopt technology. As a builder of $1 billion-plus high-rise projects, I know what matters: time and money. Buildstock isn’t another complex software pitch; it’s a promise,” observes Founder and CEO Kathryn Thiele, AIA. “Buildstock is about completing projects faster, more cost-effectively, with unprecedented transparency. This is how technology reshapes the industry.”
Buildstock has quickly gained traction in the New York tri-state area, handling multiple orders daily, she adds, and is poised for expansion across the United States. A certified minority and women-owned business (M/WBE), it is positioned to be a key player as New York is required to allocate $60 billion of contracts to M/WBE enterprises for public projects, including airports, housing and infrastructure. The metro area’s largest private builders—Turner Construction, AECOM/Tishman, Hunter Roberts and Holt among them—also have ambitious goals to steer a quarter or more of their contracts to M/WBE businesses.