When the country went into lockdown last year, major construction sites deemed “essential” stayed open for business. OpenSpace, which maps construction sites and lets managers access images of those sites remotely, became a vital resource for some real estate firms.
Now, the company has raised $55 million to accelerate its growth. The Series C was led by Alkeon Capital Management, with participation from Penny Pritzker’s PSP Partners, GreenPoint Partners and New World Development. Prior backers Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, JLL Spark, Navitas Capital and Zigg Capital also wrote checks.
San Francisco-based OpenSpace was founded in 2017. The startup uses AI, as well as cameras affixed to workers’ hardhats, to provide 360-degree pictures of active job sites. Its analytics can be used to ensure site managers comply with safety standards, to benchmark performance, and make sure jobs are running smoothly and efficiently.
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In a statement, CEO Jeevan Kalanithi said OpenSpace’s images create a “single source of truth” for construction jobs.
“Our vision is to remove time-consuming and tedious work from construction so that builders can focus on building,” he said.
The round brings the company’s total funding to just over $88 million. In 2019, it closed a $14 million Series A from real estate players, including JLL Spark, Suffolk Construction and Tishman Speyer. (Navitas Capital, Zigg Capital and WeWork also participated in that round.) Tishman Speyer has also enlisted OpenSpace at the Spiral, a 1,005-foot-tall office tower under construction near Hudson Yards.
In recent years, similar startups, including OnsiteIQ and AirWorks, have cropped up to give building owners and contractors better information about job sites. But the ability to check on progress remotely became a key tool during the pandemic.
OpenSpace said it tripled its revenue over the past year, while its customer count jumped 150 percent. The company claims its cloud-based system has tracked four billion square feet of active construction projects in the U.S.