Avvir: How This Automated Construction Platform Is Driving Building Digitization

By Annie Baker ● Jul 16, 2019
  • Automated construction platform Avvir announced it raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures

Avvir is an automated construction platform for monitoring and building digitization that recently raised $2.5 million in a seed round of funding led by Khosla Ventures partner Evan Moore. Metaprop and Localglobe also joined the round.

Avvir is known for building a “system of reality” for buildings. And it has built a system of record that connects building plans to built reality and syncs them automatically. This system eliminates rework, empower building owners and general contractors to better manage their construction programs, and ensures that building plans delivered to owners at the end of construction accurately reflect as-built conditions. This is important since rework accounts for nearly 10% of total construction costs and most of it are preventable if mistakes are caught early and inspection is done often. 

“We are incredibly excited to find partners who are as excited by our vision for the future of the built environment as we are,” said Raffi Holzer — CEO, and Co-Founder of Avvir. “We think their collective networks and operational expertise will help grow Avvir exponentially over the next year or two.”

Avvir utilizes computer vision algorithms to compare laser scans and photos captured onsite to a building information model (BIM) and then automatically update it, effectively creating a digital twin of the site. And the digital twin can be used for construction monitoring purposes during the construction project and as a platform for building management once construction is complete.

“Construction planning is increasingly digitized but once you go into the field, the connection to the digital model is often lost. Avvir reconciles the digital model with reality as a project is built, allowing owners to see what’s really happening and to have an accurate set of as-built plans post construction. Avvir’s partners have already saved millions of dollars in avoided rework. I’m thrilled to back the Avvir team, an exceptional group of technologists working to help their partners in the industry become more productive,” added Moore.

With this round of funding, Avvir will scale its engineering team as well as its sales in the U.S. and abroad. And it will also enable expansion of the current offerings. Plus the Avvir team will be building out an offering in the facility management space, improving its existing algorithms with respect to both accuracy and turnaround time, and building out a progress monitoring tool that can automatically update construction schedules.

“Avvir is a great example of why we are so excited about the types of innovation we’re seeing in today’s PropTech market. Avvir is applying cutting edge technology to solve a pervasive and expensive issue in the construction industry. Avvir’s technology enables key stakeholders in a commercial construction project to spot discrepancies between the as-built product and the project plans in real-time, which gives project owners the ability to quickly and inexpensively fix a discrepancy if it is problematic, or update the project plans to reflect the as-built reality if it is benign. The value of such a solution is obvious–significant time and money saved during the construction process and an accurate digital twin for efficient facility management after a project’s completion,” explained Zak Schwarzman of MetaProp.

Currently, Avvir is in pilot with some of the largest companies in the world including Facebook, ExxonMobil, and Goldman Sachs along with municipalities like the NYC EDC. And Avvir has already helped construction lenders like iStar make payment commensurate with completed work, helped the University of Pennsylvania identify issues on a major hospital project in near real-time and helped the United Arab Emirates ensure their new mission to the UN was completed to specifications.