A gangbusters year in proptech dealmaking has yielded another big-ticket transaction in the construction-tech niche.
Hilti, a global construction software, services and tools manufacturer, will acquire the jobsite management platform Fieldwire in a $300 million deal. San Francisco-based Fieldwire, founded in 2013 by CEO Yves Frinault and President Javed Singha, allows construction workers and site managers to coordinate tasks, schedule and track projects, and manage jobsite risk.
Liechtenstein-based Hilti participated in Fieldwire’s Series B financing round in 2017 and guided the startup as it scaled in North America and expanded into Europe and Asia.
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“Our main focus has always been to bring additional technologies and innovative solutions in selected, clearly defined fields of our portfolio and not to just buy volume,” Martina McIsaac, CEO of Hilti North America, said.
Fieldwire had raised $40.4 million in previous rounds and had been preparing for another this summer when Hilti approached with the prospect of linking up.
“Hilti has plans to put a lot of resources behind Fieldwire — an amount that is quite comparable to raising a very large round for Fieldwire,” Frinault said in an interview.
The purchase comes amid a great reawakening in construction, as job sites worldwide come back online after more than a year of pandemic-induced hibernation.
Fieldwire will retain all of its 130-plus employees and it plans to grow after it is absorbed into Hilti, Frinault said.
The company has offices in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Paris, France. Some 4,000 paying customers have created and managed more than a million projects on the platform as of November, it says.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Con-tech has been fertile ground for M&A and fundraising throughout the year. In September, Procore, another maker of construction management software, bought the lien-payments platform Levelset for $500 million, consolidating its position in the field.
Last month, Toronto-based Bridgit, a startup seeking to modernize workforce management and planning, raised $24 million in Series B funding.