Construction payments startup Flashtract closes $15M Series A

Startup, which aims to help contractors ditch paper checks, saw 400% increase in dollars billed last year

From left: Ben Conry and Blair Chenault, co-founders, Flashtract (Flashtract, iStock)
From left: Ben Conry and Blair Chenault, co-founders, Flashtract (Flashtract, iStock)

Flashtract, a cloud-based construction software startup, raised $15 million to automate billing and payments for contractors and subcontractors used to writing paper checks.

The Atlanta-based firm claims to be the fastest-growing billing software provider to the construction sector, which, like much of the real estate industry, has traditionally been slow to embrace new technology. Flashtract’s software helps users track and manage payment applications, lien waivers, compliance requirements and other essential documentation, thereby reducing overall risk, the company says.

You stay alive in construction by properly managing your billing and payments, CEO Blair Chenault told The Real Deal. “Construction technology is in this very important transition period, of going from running mainly on spreadsheets to catching up with many other industries.”

The startup, co-founded by Chenault and Ben Conry in 2018 and launched in 2020, saw a 300 percent gain in payment application volume last year and a 400 percent increase in dollars billed by its clients, “totaling multiple billions,” it said in an announcement Thursday.

The Series A round was led by Addition Capital and Shine Capital. The company did not name any other investors or provide a valuation figure.

The firm had raised an earlier seed round, but Flashtract declined to disclose details.

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Flashtract’s software is scalable, but the company targets primarily “mid-to-large” contractors with $50 million in construction volume and up, Chenault said. Its platform can be integrated with project management platforms such as Procore’s.

Flashtract’s competitors include the mobile-based payments platform JC Pay and Oracle’s Textura. Chenault said the software’s quick roll-out and ease of use — it looks and feels almost like a consumer application, he said — set it apart.

“They can scale it out themselves within their company,” Chenault said of the platform’s users. “It’s very easy to train someone how to use it.”

Flashtract has 32 employees as of the start of 2022.

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