How did you come up with the idea for KEWAZO and what is your core product?

We studied opportunities for automation in construction. For example, Japanese companies in the 1960s and ‘70s tried to create fully automated construction sites with so called “on-site factories”. These projects failed because they were too ambitious—they tried to do too much at the same time.

Several Japanese companies then tried to automate single activities on site instead, such as painting. Painting for instance requires a far simpler approach compared to the automation of a whole construction site. As expected, focusing on single aspect of the construction process was more successful. We learned that this approach still holds true today. It is better to concentrate on single topics of significantly lower complexity compared to full job sites, but the single topics should still be somewhat challenging in terms of automation.

The problem on construction sites is that you need to account for a lot of human creativity in the moment. Robots are moving in pre-programmed ways, which is hard on a messy construction site. When thinking about using robots on construction sites today, there needs to be some sort of structure in which, or upon which, the robot would move.

For this reason, my former classmate and current co-founder Leonidas Pozikidis and I thought about scaffolding as about a structure to provide more opportunities for on-site automation. With the idea to automate scaffolding assembly in mind, we attracted four other co-founders with very different backgrounds and specialties including business, software and hardware.
By networking and researching the scaffolding industry, we learned that the major problems of scaffolding assembly are safety, labor shortage and inefficiency.

We learned that transportation during scaffolding assembly is the bottleneck of the process. Around 80% of the total assembly time is spent transporting parts from the storage place on-site to the assembly point, so we knew that improving transportation on site would already make a big impact. Proving that we could successfully resolve a known issue like minimizing transport time would give us a foot in the door of the industry, and the opportunity to implement more automation with further solutions.

To cut down transport time, we started on working on a two-dimensional robotic elevator, which provides vertical and horizontal transportation during assembly. We have since shared our concept for this solution with leaders in the industry and we have received a very positive feedback. And by listening to our potential customers, we have even learned that a simpler version of the solution –an automated vertical transportation solution– would already provide enough value for them compared to existing conventional solutions.

Our current goal is to bring robotic elevators on-site, which will move in one or multiple directions and transport materials in safe and efficient way. The robots should assist workers and make their work easier and safer.

One of our potential customers even said: “You should name the system ‘from 16 to 65’. Today, most of my workers can only work until they are 40 or 50. After that, their body wears out so much that they ask me to make them construction managers or at least lorry drivers, but I can’t make everybody drivers or managers. Your system can give my workers an opportunity to work safe and healthy until they are 65.”

In what development stage are you in right now? Did you already produce a prototype?

We have built the first technical prototype of our robot to run first field tests. It performs on a certain level but does not reach all the goal parameters set off on the final system yet. On the basis of this prototype we were able to sign letters of intent for preorders with our first customers.

Right now, we are building a pre-series product which we plan to finish in the first quarter of 2019 and which should be certified in the second quarter of 2019. As an equipment manufacturer, we must follow European machine directives which means before we are able to have people working with the product on a daily basis, we need a certification.

Who are your target customers?

Our targeted customers are sub-contractors in the area of scaffolding assembly. Generally, we have two focus areas: construction and industry servicing. In construction, our customers are mainly scaffolding assembly contractors. In industry servicing, they are industrial service providers. These companies usually maintain facilities in the process industry, which includes chemical, petrochemical, gas, oil and power plants.

How did you go about finding clients at first?

The best way for us to reach out and to find potential clients is to attend industry events. We found our first clients at these events. One major advantage was that we are the first company focusing on automating scaffolding, which gave us a lot of attention throughout Germany and from around the world.

In 2018 you closed a €1M seed round. Could you tell us more about the process of raising venture capital for your startup?

There is no universal way of raising venture capital. It is important that you check standard marks which investors focus on for your first investment. Things like a good team, a good product and having a patent and IP. Try to reduce the number of red flags and do your homework that you can do before you reach out to investors.

Be open to feedback and ready to adjust your idea based on the feedback you get.

It is also important to understand the focus areas of the investors you are talking. You should research the companies in their portfolio to see if your company would be a good fit. It is also worth considering at which stage they typically invest and if this fits with your staging.

Be open to feedback and ready to adjust your idea based on the feedback you get. It is important that you show your openness, learn from feedback and integrate it in your company building process.

Generally, you should reach out to as many potential investors as you can and be ready to often get refused. You need to understand that it is often about internal factors of the investors and not only about your idea and company.

Raising capital is a very long process which you should start at least 6 months before you need money and constantly network.

How many people are you at KEWAZO today?

We are 15 people at the moment: 10 full-time and 5 working students.

Do you have any advice for Archipreneurs who are interested in starting their own company in the built environment?

The most important thing is to build a solid network early. Also, don’t be afraid to share and talk about your idea. An idea alone is worth nothing.

The most important thing is to build a solid network early.

Execution is everything. Be open for feedback and do not be offended if you get critical feedback. Make ­mis­takes quickly and also adapt quickly, adjust and move forward.

What are your thoughts on the future of the built environment? How can it improve, and what continues to inspire you?

I think that the construction industry is going to be disrupted soon. It will start in software and then progress to hardware because software will be easier to set up. However, a friend from a large construction software company once said that new software is focused on organizing today’s chaos of construction sites and its process.

New hardware will eliminate the majority of this chaos by establishing new processes. Where software can be seen as a painkiller that focuses on consequences, hardware advances can be a solution that cuts to the heart of the problem by getting rid of it at all. This will lead to much higher productivity rates than conventional solutions.

I think that robotics and data analytics we will be the two focus areas where the most innovation that will change the way how we understand construction sites will happen in the next years to come. —

About Artem

Artem Kuchukov
CEO & Co-Founder KEWAZO

As a practicing civil engineer specialist in Russia and the US, Artem Kuchukov understood the challenges and needs of the construction industry first hand. In 2017, he refined his knowledge in these areas by completing a Master’s degree in Advanced Construction and Building Technology from the TU Munich, where he obtained a comprehensive overview of the history and grounding principles of robotics in construction.

In 2016, Artem co-founded KEWAZO with a team of specialists and graduates based in Germany.

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This round, which values the company at $3 billion, will be leveraged to support product development, partner platform expansion, and continued investment in hiring and developing top talent.

“At Procore we’re committed to delivering products and solutions that improve the lives of everyone in the construction industry, so we will continue to invest in the core areas of our business that have direct positive impact for our users,” said Tooey Courtemanche, founder and CEO, Procore. “We believe business drives culture, and culture drives business. This investment round will allow us to advance product innovation, expand on the largest partner and developer ecosystem in construction technology, and continue to hire and develop the best talent to support our mission and vision.”

Procore currently has over 1,300 full-time employees working across 12 offices around the globe, and will exit the year with more than 5,000 customers on projects in over 100 countries. The company was recently recognized as the fourth best place to work in the United States, according to Glassdoor’s 2019 Best Places to Work.

Procore is a leading provider of cloud-based applications for construction. Procore connects people, applications, and devices through a unified platform to help construction professionals manage risk and build quality projects—safely, on time, and within budget. Procore has a diversified business model with products for Project Management, Construction Financials, Quality & Safety, and Field Productivity. Headquartered in Carpinteria, California, with offices around the globe, Procore is used to manage billions of dollars in annual construction volume.

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PlanGrid software lets general contractors, subcontractors and owners in commercial, heavy civil and other industries work together throughout the construction project lifecycle. PlanGrid software offers real-time collaboration, keeping the field and the office on the same page. It gives builders real-time access to project plans, punch lists, project tasks, progress photos, daily field reports, submittals and more.

The acquisition should help Autodesk expand its presence in the construction industry, which represents a $12 trillion market opportunity, according to McKinsey. Autodesk plans to integrate workflows between PlanGrid’s software and both Autodesk Revit software and the Autodesk BIM 360 construction management platform. Additionally, PlanGrid has a third-party ecosystem that’s complementary to Autodesk’s.

Here is a summary from the press release:

“As designing and making converge, Autodesk is connecting project data from design through construction and putting predictive insights into the hands of contractors,” said Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk CEO. “There is a huge opportunity to streamline all aspects of construction through digitization and automation. The acquisition of PlanGrid will accelerate our efforts to improve construction workflows for every stakeholder in the construction process.”

“At PlanGrid, we have a relentless focus on empowering construction workers to build as productively as possible,” said Tracy Young, PlanGrid CEO. “One of the first steps to improving construction productivity is the adoption of digital workflows with centralized data. PlanGrid has excelled at building beautiful, simple field collaboration software, while Autodesk has focused on connecting design to construction. Together, we can drive greater productivity and predictability on the jobsite.”

About PlanGrid
PlanGrid builds simple, powerful software construction teams love to use. The company’s mobile-first technology gives general contractors, subcontractors, owners and architects access to information in real-time, enables field collaboration and provides actionable insights. With PlanGrid, any construction team member can manage and update blueprints, specs, photos, RFIs, field reports, punch lists and other information from any device. PlanGrid is used on more than one million projects across commercial, heavy civil and other industries in 90 countries. Headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 2011, PlanGrid has $69 million in funding from YCombinator, Sequoia Capital, Tenaya Capital and other top venture capital firms.

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Automation is gaining momentum in the industry as a way of optimizing both the design and the construction sectors. An increasing number of AEC companies, like Intsite, are starting to embrace automation and machine learning in order to streamline services and organization.

According to VentureBeat, the industrial robotics industry is expected to be worth $71.7 billion by 2023, which largely explains the recent spike in attention among entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. One of the most notable breakthroughs in the area happened recently, when Tel Aviv-based company Intsite, announced a $1.35 million pre-seed round, led by Terra Venture Partners and the Israel Innovation Authority, to fund “the world’s autonomous crane technology”.

Intsite Construction-Tech Startup

Intsite aims to increase construction site productivity and safety by developing a platform that taps computer vision to analyze camera feeds in real time, ensuring tower crane operators are made aware of workers and obstacles within range. Their technology, which is based on a combination of aerospace tech and state-of-the-art algorithms, can improve a crane’s precision by up to 30 percent.

The crane, as the control tower of the construction site, oversees the construction progress. Getting insights from the crane will allow the construction team to follow and influence the construction process, resulting in better, safer and smarter projects. With its Internet of Things (IoT) device, machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing technologies, Insite’s solution can increase cranes’ productivity and reduce costs.

The technology has already been tested on a construction site owned by Shikun & Binui Solel Boneh, one of Israel’s largest construction companies, and the firm is planning to pilot the system in the UK and France early next year. Currently, the Intsite team is working out of the incubator TerraLab, created by Terra Venture Partners.

With a market cap of some $716 million, Shikun & Binui set up an innovation program in 2015 called BuildUp, which focuses on identifying and implementing innovation in its production processes — from designs to workflows and products and communications with customers — in the areas of energy and water, infrastructure and construction.

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