Kraaft, a super messaging app for contractors, announced that it has raised over €3.2 million from Chalfen Ventures, Stride VC, OSS Ventures, and high-profile business angels. This operation will enable the startup to develop its solution and strengthen its position on the French market, where it works with 300+ construction companies already.
Marc Nègre (CPO), Cédric Boidin (CTO) and Thomas Reygagne (CEO) launched Kraaft in 2020. The “super messaging app” is easy-to-use, even for employees who are not familiar with digital solutions. All site activity is centralised in real-time group conversation. But unlike a traditional messaging system, users can then use specialised modules to better manage their projects: geolocation of photos, folders containing documents and plans, message classification, security audits, intervention reports. All is done within the mobile application, on the same model as the “super messaging app” WeChat in China.
Thanks to its simplicity, Kraaft has attracted more than 300 European construction companies in less than 3 years and aims at 10,000 users by the end of the year. Its customers include small companies as well as major players such as Bouygues, Veolia and Fayat. The startup was selected last year by Leonard, VINCI’s foresight and innovation platform.
“We were looking for a solution that would be easy for our field staff to use and that could equip all our operations at VINCI. Kraaft’s excellent adaptation to our sites has given the solution excellent feedback, even from people who are less familiar with digital technology,” said Julien Villalongue, Director of Leonard.
Kraaft, which is growing at of over 10% per month, has attracted high-profile business angels such as Thibaud Elziere and Charles Songhurst to secure this latest seed round. “This will allow us to invest in product development and consolidate our position on the French market,” commented Kraaft co-founder and CEO Thomas Reygagne.
But the company also wants to accelerate its international presence, and perhaps expand into new markets. “80% of the world’s population doesn’t work behind a computer, and messaging is eating the world! WhatsApp is brilliant because it’s so simple to use for people in the field. But it’s not enough: if you want to run your business effectively, you need to turn conversations into workflows. This is what Kraaft does, and we believe it can be applied to many industries, be it in construction, manufacturing, retail or agriculture,” added Marc Nègre, co-founder and CPO of Kraaft.
The construction industry is the least digitized in the world, despite employing over 110 million people. 9 out of 10 projects go over budget or over schedule, and 1/3 of the time it’s lack of communication that professionals blame. People spend hours on “non-productive” tasks (searching for information, dealing with errors), and this ultimately leads to human tensions between field and office teams. Studies estimate that the industry could save more than $1 trillion a year simply by increasing productivity.
