Boston–(Business Wire) – Amid labor shortages, rising material costs, economic uncertainty and heightened sustainability requirements, now is a critical time for the construction industry to adopt and implement cutting-edge technologies. Recognizing the current need for innovation, Suffolk Technologies, Suffolk’s venture capital subsidiary, created the BOOST program, an intensive business accelerator that connects established world technology startups with Suffolk leaders, industry experts and academics. This week, BOOST celebrated the culmination of its six-week program at its third annual Demo Day event.
During Demo Day, seven BOOST startups had the opportunity to present their companies, products and solutions for the construction world to investors, construction technology founders, customers and technology enthusiasts. Hosted by Suffolk Technologies at its headquarters in Roxbury, MA, the event is designed to inspire founders, increase brand exposure, foster industry connections and unlock new resources for startups upon completion of the BOOST program. These startups specialize in everything from sustainability to supply chain improvement, all with the goal of simplifying the construction process, delivering more efficient buildings, and delivering maximum benefit to developers, contractors, and consumers.
“Suffolk Technologies is very excited about the talent, drive, creativity and technical excellence displayed by this year’s BOOST students,” said Parker Mundt, Vice President of Platforms, Suffolk Technologies. The ability to think about the construction process and move the built environment forward. This event is further evidence of the industry’s desire and potential to innovate and gives us a window into the future of the built world.”
Over the past six weeks of the BOOST program, seven start-ups participated in growth workshops, partnered with Suffolk Construction Solution Directors and operations staff who helped participants fine-tune their offerings for the job site, and invested in Suffolk Technologies The founders of the portfolio companies discuss trends in innovation in the industry.
“What makes the BOOST program so unique and valuable is how closely cohort participants work with the Suffolk operations team and how quickly Suffolk Technologies allows startups to stress test their products in a jobsite environment,” co-director Brittany Harris said. Founder and CEO of BOOST participant Qualis Flow (QFlow).
“The Suffolk Technologies team has been helping us understand what the space looks like, the applicability of our products, and where the end market is headed in terms of digital transformation,” added Jade Cohen, co-founder and CPO of QFlow. “You don’t get a lot of opportunities to interact with an operations team at this level like this.”
This year’s BOOST program, recently selected as the 2021 Accelerator of the Real Estate Technology and Innovation Center, attracted one of the most competitive application areas to date; the program received 185 applications from 32 countries. Applications for this year’s BOOST program focused on sustainability, design, planning, robotics, advanced data analytics, and smart buildings, and the following seven finalists were selected from the pool of applicants to participate in the program.
construction club: Delays in delivering construction materials to the job site can negatively impact project schedules and costs. BuildClub provides contractors with an easy-to-use solution that enables them to order popular building materials on-demand and have them delivered in as little as one hour, ensuring project efficiency and productivity.
Computation tree: Historically, critical and complex engineering calculations have been derived from offline, decentralized computing tools. CalcTree brings together engineering teams, designs, and calculations into one cloud-based management platform where calculations can be easily shared and transformed to streamline engineering work.
carbon title: The real estate sector accounts for 38% of carbon emissions. Carbon Title provides an end-to-end software platform designed to help the real estate industry calculate its carbon impact and achieve carbon neutrality goals.
builders: Cash flow from trading partners is the leading cause of construction defaults, with trading partners waiting an average of 83 days to complete work. Constrafor is setting new productivity and cost efficiency standards for how general contractors and subcontractors source projects and cash flow.
conspiracy: Job site coordination can be chaotic, with many trading partners on the job, a constantly changing job site, and unstructured communication. PLOT’s delivery calendars, logistics maps and structured messengers ensure consistent alignment within project teams.
Mass flow (Qflow): Tracking materials on the job site with paper tickets can be difficult and can result in incorrect or lost information. Qflow is a digital platform that enables construction teams to collect real-time material and waste data and make decisions at the source.
trust layer: Tracking insurance certificates is critical to reducing jobsite risk, but compliance is a tedious, uphill battle. TrustLayer provides a collaborative risk management platform that helps reduce friction among stakeholders by automatically verifying insurance, license and compliance documents that contractors receive from their business partners.
Startups that have participated in BOOST over the past few years have benefited greatly from the program. The BOOST I and II cohorts include startups such as CANVAS, Moxion Power, Flexbase, Wint, Felux, Soil Connect, and Rugged Robotics, which collectively have raised more than $300 million in venture funding since participating in the program.
This year, BOOST is launched in partnership with Autodesk, Moog Construction, Procore, Liberty Mutual, MIT DesignX and Gunderson Dettmer.
About Suffolk Technology
Suffolk Technologies is the venture capital arm of innovative construction business Suffolk. Suffolk Technologies invests in early and growth-stage startups transforming the built world in real estate and development, architecture, engineering and construction, property management and smart cities. Leveraging Suffolk’s expertise and partner network, Suffolk Technologies works with visionary founders to accelerate industry-wide adoption of breakthrough innovations, from pre-product to mass market.For more information on Suffolk Technologies’ strategy and investments, visit Suffolk-Tech.com
About Suffolk
Suffolk is a national enterprise with investment, innovation and construction. Suffolk is an end-to-end business delivering value (Suffolk Technology) and innovative research throughout the project lifecycle by leveraging its core construction management services and vertical service lines including real estate capital investment, design, self-construction services, technology start-up investment /development. Suffolk is a $5 billion national company with 2,500 employees and major offices in Boston (headquarters), New York, Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Estero, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego office. Suffolk serves clients in every major industry, including healthcare, science and technology, education, gaming, transportation/aviation and business. Suffolk is a privately held company led by Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Fish. Suffolk is ranked #23 on Engineering News-Record’s “Top 400 Contractors” list.For more information, please visit www.suffolk.com and follow suffolk Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, youtube, and instagram.