Built Robotics has secured US$64m (£48.9m) in Series C funding to further develop its autonomy retrofit kit for excavators.
Following a funding round in 2019, the company had been growing its customer base and developing its Exosystem product, it was then approached by the lead investor Tiger Global to raise additional capital.
Noah Ready-Campbell, CEO of Built Robotics, explained: “We actually still had most of our Series B in the bank. Tiger had done some calls with some of our customers, and they just heard really, really positive responses,”
“So Tiger reached out and they were like ‘hey, you guys want to raise another round?’ And, you know, it’s Tiger Global. Usually when you get an offer like that, I think it makes sense to take a hard look.”
Once installed, Exosystem turns almost any manually-operated excavator into an autonomous platform. The system includes an all-weather enclosure, proximity radar, 360º cameras and GPS. It can be installed and calibrated in less than a day.
According to Built Robotics, automation is becoming necessary in many construction projects due to labour shortages.
Exosystem can be rented as standalone units to be installed onto a customers’ existing fleet or customers can lease upgraded excavators from Built with the technology already built in. Contractors pay an hourly fee to license the system’s autonomy software. The system is designed to save contractors 20% or more than typical methods.
“As a leader in autonomous construction technology, Built’s focus on easy-to-install robotic upgrades for heavy equipment is generating significant demand,” said Griffin Schroeder, partner at Tiger Global.
“We are excited to partner with them as their autonomous trenching solution helps transform the construction of solar farms, oil & gas projects, and other large and critical infrastructure projects around the world.”
Existing investors NEA, Founders Fund, Fifth Wall and Building Ventures also participated in this latest funding round.
