Field Materials – an AI software company aiming to transform the $2 trillion construction material purchasing industry – announced it has raised a $4.65 million seed funding round led by Blumberg Capital with participation from Zacua Ventures. The company’s founders Eldar Sadikov and Victor Gane are Stanford-educated serial entrepreneurs who had sold their previous company (Jetlore) to PayPal in 2018 and they have backgrounds in AI, payments, e-commerce, and construction. The funding round was joined by several industry executives including the former SVP of Lowe’s and former VP of Home Depot, GM of Payments at Google, and a co-founder of YouTube.
Construction is known as the second largest industry in the world, but it is significantly behind other major industries in adopting technology. And 95% of field workers noted that they would be willing to use digitals tools to streamline parts of their work and 75% of construction contractors use mobile devices to access work-related information. But contractors are continuing to request quotes, place orders for materials, communicate changes, and report issues through phone calls, emails, and text messages. The orders are often miscommunicated or dropped between the field and the office or the contractor and the supplier, with information siloed in email or phone messages.
Field Materials’ web and mobile apps essentially streamline the purchasing process across the entire lifecycle of a construction project – which ranges from requesting quotes during pre-construction to managing orders and deliveries to the construction site. Plus the company is able to digitize workflows that were traditionally done in Excel, email, and paper. And the company also eliminates errors and delays in projects through AI-powered checking of delivery slips and invoices as well as automation of notifications and reminders.
Field Materials’ platform provides a centralized system of record to track what the contractor and supplier agree upon and automates follow-up to ensure a timely closure. And Field Materials partners with both general contractors and specialty subs that buy large quantities of construction materials from trade-specialized suppliers. The platform also works seamlessly with existing estimation and accounting software and relies on well established communication channels between contractors and suppliers. By capturing all email and text messages automatically, the platform ensures that everyone on the team has complete visibility into material orders.
KEY QUOTES:
“Field Materials’ platform provides an essential link between the field, the office, and the vendors.” Norbert Young, an industry veteran and former president of McGraw-Hill Construction, says “Field Materials has a profound effect on the efficiency of our industry, where miscommunication between contractors and suppliers is one of the top reasons for project delays and budget overruns.”
— Andy Ball, the former CEO of Webcor (one of the largest GCs in the US) and currently President of oWow
“Eldar and Victor are serial entrepreneurs with a successful track record, deep industry knowledge, and an extensive network of industry executives. We believe Field Materials has the team and technology to transform one of the world’s largest industries.” Vivin Hegde, general partner at Zacua Ventures, a VC specializing in construction, says: “Material procurement is poised to be disrupted and several multi-billion dollar companies will emerge as a result. We’ve scouted and looked at dozens of companies in this space and are deeply impressed by what Field Materials is building. They not only have the best team, product and go-to-market strategy that we’ve seen but have also found ways to minimize friction in every step of the process, which we believe is key to adoption.”
— Juan Pujadas, veteran finance and technology executive and advisor at Blumberg Capital
