Brick & Mortar Ventures, one of the leading investors in Construction Technology, announced yesterday that a fund it had closed in January 2018 raised $97.2 million. This represented Brick & Mortar’s largest fund to date, and marked its first institutional capital, according to the company.
The San Francisco-based venture capital firm also disclosed its investors in that fund, which include several heavy hitters in the ConTech and construction arenas: Ardex, Autodesk, CEMEX, Ferguson Ventures, FMI, Glodon, Haskell, Hilti, Obayashi, Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, and United Rentals. Brick & Mortar refers to these investors as its Preferred Industry Partners, which help the VC firm identify startups that might provide solutions for the Partners’ needs.
Darren Bechtel, CEO of Brick & Mortar Ventures, is the brother of Brendan Bechtel, chairman and CEO of Bechtel Group, one of the world’s largest commercial and industrial construction corporations, with $25.5 billion in revenue last year. Bechtel isn’t an investor in Brick & Mortar Ventures, but is considered a Preferred Industry Partner by the firm.
Last year, Autodesk acquired PlanGrid and BuildingConnected, two companies for which Brick & Mortar had provided early seed capital. BuildingConnected was one of 16 deals that Brick & Mortar Ventures transacted using capital raised for its latest fund. The other companies into which Brick & Mortar invested were ManufactOn, FieldWire, Serious Labs, Branch Technology, Canvas, Cumulus, Connect Homes, Illumagear, SafeAl, Veerum, Ynomia, Curbio, Wingtra, Timber, and SafeSite.
A spokesperson for Brick & Mortar Ventures explained the gap between the closing of this fund and the announcement about it as the firm’s way of keeping that fund “under the radar.”
SEE ALSO: AEC Angel Investor
Brick & Mortar Ventures, which started in 2015, is among a growing number of investors that are showing greater interest in construction technology, which attracted an estimated $3.1 billion in venture capital last year, a 324% increase over 2017, according to Crunchbase data.
The firm continues to seek out Seed or Series A investment opportunities in the $1 million to $4 million range.
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