Buildstock secures $1.6m pre-seed funding to expand its construction material marketplace and fintech platform

Buildstock, the B2B marketplace and fintech platform for construction materials, has secured $1.6 million in pre-seed funding. The funding round was from Precursor, MGV, XFactor, RefashionD and visionary angels, including Osuke Honda (DCM), Nihal Mehta (Eniac), Shruti Gandhi (Array Ventures), Tom Peterson (Rally Ventures), Yun-Fang Juan, and Mark G (m]x[v Capital). The platform empowers builders and suppliers by streamlining sales and procurement, driving savings of money and time. This funding enables Buildstock to scale, expand third-party FinTech, AI and logistics integrations and bring more participants into the marketplace.

Late payments cost the $1.4 trillion construction materials industry over $208 billion in 2022, up 53% from 2021. Buildstock's marketplace and fintech solutions solve this by creating unprecedented procurement efficiency. With Buildstock, builders enjoy AI-driven product discovery, as well as substantial cost savings - as high as 40% - on materials and 5x faster lead times. Additionally, they get transparency into lead times and tracking information to plan around deliveries of supplies. Buildstock even offers a feature that takes blueprint files and uses AI to generate a list of needed supplies, further streamlining the procurement process.

Jim Barrett, Chief Innovation Officer, Turner Construction: "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 digital marketplace and flexible financing options. 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."

For suppliers, Buildstock offers fast, predictable payments, instead of the standard 90 to 120 days that suppliers normally wait to get paid (if they get paid the full amount). Buildstock uses factoring and pays suppliers within 5 days of delivery. This is part of their cash flow innovation in the industry, which significantly improves their suppliers' unit economics, manufacturing capacities, overhead and insurances.

Kathryn Thiele, Founder and CEO, Buildstock: "The construction industry is ripe for innovation and is one of the last industries to adopt technology. As a builder of $1B+ high-rise projects, I know what matters: time and money. Buildstock isn't another complex software pitch; it's a promise. 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, and is poised for expansion across the United States. A certified minority & women-owned business (M/WBE), it's 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 largest private builders, including AECOM/Tishman, Turner Construction, Hunter Roberts, and Holt, also have ambitious goals to make a quarter or more of their contracts be with M/WBE businesses.

Charles Hudson, Founder and Managing Partner, Precursor Ventures: "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 massive construction industry and Buildstock is at the forefront of bringing these to life. We're extremely proud of the team at Buildstock for the value they've been able to bring to market."

Construction is ramping up everywhere and there is a need for both construction companies and suppliers to have a centralized marketplace. For builders, Buildstock offers a quick and convenient way to find the local and national suppliers that can help them save big on materials, streamline procurement, easily manage orders and save time to complete projects faster. On the supplier side, Buildstock offers increased product visibility and order flow, better payment terms and inventory management.

www.buildstock.com