Cloud-based collaboration platform Finch has secured €2.5 million to help digitise the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry and tackle what has become a trillion-dollar problem. The Swedish startup is now getting ready for commercial launch.
Architecture, engineering and construction, also known as AEC, is an industry responsible for keeping society going. The designers and builders of our homes, our offices and our cities, players in this sector have a great role to play in the global economy. Yet, in our digital and data-driven world, it’s been shown that the AEC industry is severely lagging behind, and might be one of the least-digitized sectors globally.
As the rest of the world goes digital and leverages modern tech to enhance collaboration and productivity, AEC players are being held back and left behind – and it could be costing the global economy trillions.
Founded in 2019 by two architects, who were simply fed up with the situation, Finch is a Swedish startup on a mission to solve the problem. Now, the startup led by Pamela Nunez Wallgren, Jesper Wallgren and software engineer Martin Kretz, has picked up new funding to fuel its plans.
The details:
- €2.5 million raise led by Inventure
- Total of €3 million raised to date
- Angels backing the startup include Peter Neubauer (co-founder of both Mapillary, acquired by Meta in 2020, and the graph database giant Neo4J) and Emil Sjödin (co-founder of Refined)
Cloud-based collaboration
Malmö-based Finch’s cloud-based collaboration platform aims to allow users to optimize early-stage real estate development projects with AI and graph technology. With this tech, Finch generates floor plans adapted to local rules and regulations as well as constraints of the site while allowing all stakeholders to collaborate on a building project in real time — making it an industry first.
By measuring performance, detecting errors and suggesting optimal solutions based on the user’s input parameters, Finch makes sure the right decisions are being made before construction begins. This saves time, money and resources.
Pamela Wallgren, co-founder and CEO: “As architects ourselves, my co-founder and I have first-hand experience of the pain of not having access to the kind of modern planning tools that we take for granted in all other industries. Instead of working collaboratively on a project in the cloud, we’d have to send projects as saved files back and forth between ourselves and external partners while manually visualising different floor plans and their constraints. With Finch, everyone involved in a project is able to see how different rules and regulations impact the building and its potential inside and out from the get-go.”
The Swedish startup has already onboarded strategic customers across Europe, the US, and the Middle East, including names like Herzog & de Meuron and White Arkitekter. It is also reported to have a waiting list of more than 12k sign-ups – so clearly, the demand is there.
Lauri Kokkila, partner at Inventure: “The biggest building design choices affecting life quality, sustainability and profit margins are made in the very early stages of a construction project and most of these decisions are currently done with software that was built 20+ years ago. With Finch, the user is in full control, giving the users superpowers. We’ve screened more than 250 companies in construction and proptech over the past five years and Finch is our first investment in this space, simply because it’s the first time we’ve seen a perfect founder and product market fit in combination with a born-global product with an impressive list of first users.”
With these new funds, Finch will develop its tech further and get ready for commercial launch.
Peter Leuchovius, CIO at White Arkitekter, said: “The age of computational design is here and we want to be in the forefront. By using scripting, simulations and generative tools we inform our proposals in early stages. This allows us to make better design decisions where they are most needed and necessary to deliver sustainable architecture.”
