Shared 21 August, 2024
New York-based Trunk Tools, which has built an AI platform for the construction industry, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. The three-year-old startup, founded by the Austrian-born Sarah Buchner, has previously raised $10 million.
Buchner, who holds a Ph.D. in civil systems engineering, said many of the company’s current and prospective customers have backed her company. They include: California’s WND Ventures, the venture arm of DPR Construction; Boston-based Suffolk Technologies and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures; New York’s AEC Angels, STO Building Group and Thornton Tomasetti/ TTWiiN; and Minnesota’s Charps.
Automation Is Key
Trunk Tools says its AI technology builds a “brain” that makes sense of millions of pieces of unstructured project data. It also builds AI agents that help construction professionals automate tedious and repetitive tasks in the industry, saving time and millions of dollars.
“Redpoint’s expertise in investing and scaling AI companies is a perfect match and this funding will enable us to accelerate our growth, develop new products, and cement our place as industry leaders in generative AI for construction,” said Buchner, who earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
“We like to say we are not in AI but in IA — intelligence augmentation: augmenting the tedious, manual, painful parts of worker’s jobs, so builders can focus on building,” said Buchner. “This is just the beginning of what our AI platform and its army of AI agents can achieve. This industry has long been ripe for disruption, but the market has needed the underlying technology to actually get to a point where it can leverage unstructured data effectively.”
AI Schedule Agent
Along with the funding, Trunk Tools unveiled a Trunk Tools Schedule Agent, termed as a “fully autonomous AI-powered agent tailored to the construction industry.” The agent creates a dynamic link between scheduled activities and all essential supporting documentation to build on time, on budget and according to plan, the company said.
Trunk Tools says its proprietary AI platform is used by large general contractors and several Fortune 500 companies.
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