Headquartered in Belgium and Denmark, LetsBuild is on a mission to bring more clarity to the construction industry through digital tech. Now, the startup has raised €6.3 million to help Europe build more efficiently and sustainably.
One of the biggest sectors in the world, construction is of vital importance to our society and economy and has an impact on every single part of our lives. From where we live, where we work, how we travel around, to the spaces we share and interact in, our lives are impacted and influenced by the construction industry.
It’s a sector with incredible value, and yet, it’s currently under pressure and lacking the tools it needs to cope.
Across the world, people are moving to cities, creating an increased demand for urban construction projects, and this is happening as construction needs to meet new and ambitious sustainability targets. The sector is currently haunted by cost and time overruns – challenges that could be addressed with modern tech
Building that technology, aiming to bring together workers on site with people at the office and to all machines and sensors to create one big operating system that runs smoothly and transparently, is LetsBuild. The pan-European startup has now raised fresh capital and is set to expand further, building a new future for construction that’s based on clarity, sustainability and efficiency.
The details
Formed in 2019 by the merger of Aproplan and Geniebelt, LetsBuild has raised an additional €6.3 million to fuel its mission of bringing clarity to the complexity of construction. This will include rededicating resources to its existing services and bringing entirely new products to the market.
The round is led by Fortino Capital, whose strong portfolio in the area provides plenty of peers to compare notes with, and access to their team for further insight and opportunity. KAYA, Matexi and Solar have also participated. Industry experts Matexi and Solar deliver true construction industry expertise across our key regions and key use cases. Matexi is also a key customer of LetsBuild, putting them at the core of the company’s ability to develop directly for its users.
Filip Van Innis, Fortino Capital: “We believe this is the right team, with ever-improving products for its existing customers and promising new products for new use cases. We’re excited to be working together every day on how LetsBuild can bring more and more clarity to construction teams.”
CEO Lars Rolf Jacobsen has said that his funding marks a new era for the business, pushing forward new product development and building the team to do it.
Bringing clarity to construction
LetsBuild aims to address the core challenges hitting the construction industry today – namely the industry’s backdrop where accelerating demand and urbanization are in tension with the need to build more efficiently and sustainably.
The startup helps teams to plan and track projects both on and off-site, making the process digital, trackable and shareable. It was founded by bringing together two cornerstone products – Geniebelt and Aproplan. LB Aproplan is the easiest way for contractors to digitize their snagging, quality and safety control, meanwhile, LB Geniebelt is a real-time Gantt planning module, designed for multi-project construction, that centres all progress and communication around the plan – a way to increase alignment and visibility on site.
Thomas Goubau, CEO Q7Leader (AproPlan founder): “There’s a real pride to see LetsBuild continuing to execute every day with the spirit and sentiment that I founded AproPlan. The promise we pursued in the merger is becoming clearer every day as the vision of what’s possible becomes clearer and clearer.”
LB Site Diary and LB Coordination are the team’s latest products, bringing decades of digital construction experience to bear against new challenges for site foremen. Currently, more than 10k construction professionals across Europe use LetsBuild tools to bring clarity to the complexity of construction – and the demand for the service is growing fast.
This new funding not only enables the startup to develop its existing products and create new ones, but it also marks a new era for the construction industry. It reflects a need to digitise this massive industry and underscores the inherent value in doing so.
Hugo Dorph, Solar: “In my time from IBM to Maconomy to Solar, I’ve seen tech redefine day-to-day efficiency in successive industries. It’s about to happen in Construction too. The key to success has always been tools designed for a specific industry, by people from that industry. This is where LetsBuild truly excels and why they are leading the way in Construction.”
Ultimately, the construction industry is getting more and more complex and is under more and more pressure. Existing, manual, ways of managing these processes and connecting and aligning team members just simply don’t work in the modern age anymore – after all, when projects grow and times change, the tools we use also need to adapt and be re-considered.
LetsBuild enables teams to build projects with confidence, making large and complex projects manageable and more efficient.
Kristoff De Winne, Matexi: “As LetsBuild customers and investors from its earliest steps, we know what a cornerstone of successful projects their tools have become in Belgium and beyond. With a sharp view of what the team is working on next, it’s clear they have thought with care and clarity about which new tools will have the greatest impact on construction professionals’ everyday challenges.”
Outlining the next steps, CEO Lars Rolf Jacobsen highlighted the commitment to the future of existing products alongside creating new ones.
“Although they are our most established products, they are also hosting some of our most important innovations. Through 2023, you will see more and more connections appearing between our products, allowing you to multiply the value of capturing information digitally to bring clarity to your projects and next steps. All at no extra cost.”
“Everything we create is designed to bring clarity to the complexity of construction. The first area we are tackling is the site diary (aka construction log/ site journal). This ubiquitous duty is the starting point for so much data on-site. It holds many of the answers to what’s happening at the coal face, every day. It’s time to bring it into the mix – and, perhaps most importantly, in a way that will sync data with your other LetsBuild tools.”
In addition, the funding will help make sure the startup is building with the right team – prioritizing experience in both the construction and software industries.
“We are builders, with decades of experience in the construction industry across both leadership and other levels. We are software experts, drawing on the latest tech and techniques — just as our customers plan and pursue efficient working, you can bet we do too. Nobody out there is better positioned to build the tools that bring clarity to the complexity of construction. That’s why we’re proud to be the ones to do it.”
