Kitchener construction tech firm Bridgit raises $2.2 million in seed funding
Bridgit, a Kitchener, Ont.-based tech company that makes an innovative construction project management software package, has raised $2.2 million ($1.7 million US) in a seed funding round.
"This seed investment is a huge opportunity for Bridgit and what we're using the capital for is two different things," said CEO Mallorie Brodie, who said the company will use the funding to build the engineering team and focusing on getting more U.S. customers.
The seed funding was led by Hyde Park Venture Partners with participation from Vanedge Capital.
Brodie and Lauren Lake, who both have families in the construction industry, founded Bridgit in 2012 with the goal of improving how construction projects are managed and how contractors, sub-contractors and clients communicate.
"Essentially the way this works is, a general contractor is managing many subcontractors on the job site, there's a lot of moving parts and things inevitably go wrong throughout the construction process," said Brodie. "We give them a mobile app that allows them to track any of these deficiencies on the job site, so it could be something like a crack in the drywall, and communicate that information out to their subcontractors and that way they can get it resolved quickly, and ultimately finish the project faster."
Instead of relying on an ad-hoc system of emails, calls, texts, and notes, contractors and subcontractors connect to one spot on the app, and use photos or texts to communicate about specific jobs or changes that need to happen on a site.
The company won Google's Entrepreneurs Demo Day Women's Edition in December in San Francisco, the only Canadian company in the competition, and one of 11 in the finals on Demo Day.
Bridgit has targeted construction projects large U.S. cities such as New York and Seattle in a pilot project, and will be looking to expand to other large American cities this year.