Main Highlights
- Doxel has created software that utilizes computer vision to track and analyze progress on building sites, and secured a $40 million in Series B investment.
- According to Ladha, the company’s main differentiation from competitors is that it gives forward-thinking insight into the building industry.
- The objective is to help prevent a chain reaction of delays and increased expenses so that building owners and contractors can stay on schedule and on budget.
- According to Ladha, the business says that its technology has helped its clients come in up to 11% under budget on projects and enjoy an average 38 percent boost in productivity.
Doxel, a company that has created software that utilizes computer vision to track and analyze progress on building sites, said today that it has secured $40 million in Series B investment.
Insight Partners led the round, which also included previous investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Amplo, bringing the startup’s total funding to $56.5 million since its debut in December 2015. A16z has competed in every round of Doxel, from seed through Series B. In addition to institutional investors, Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev participated in Doxel’s Series A round as an angel investor.
Saurabh Ladha, co-founder, and CEO said he couldn’t divulge the valuation of the money raised, but that it was “over a 4x multiple” of its $12 million Series A in early 2020. He referred to the Series B raise as an “opportunistic raise.”
“We raised because we could, and at a fantastic valuation. The entire Series A remains in the bank. We didn’t even touch it,” he explained. “Our growth and bookings traction have really been so strong that we have been cash flow neutral over that time.”
How was Doxel Launched?
Ladha was motivated to launch Doxel because his family faced financial ruin as a result of a two-year delay on a large construction project in India in which his father was engaged. “I almost believed we were going to lose our house. It was the first time I was made aware of the influence that building may have on people’s livelihoods,” Ladha explained. “I understood as a youngster that regularity is what keeps projects on schedule and on budget.”
When Ladha graduated from Stanford University twenty years later, he discovered that 90% of projects are delayed and over budget.
Ladha then founded Doxel in 2015 with Robin Singh, Doxel’s CTO, to create a “computer-vision-powered predictive analytics platform” to assist owners and contractors “handle issues before they develop.” To put it another way, Doxel is creating the “Waze for Construction” platform.
According to Ladha, the company’s main differentiation from competitors is that it gives forward-thinking insight into the building industry.
“Many firms provide backward-looking analytics,” he added. “We are the only one delivering a predictive, forward-thinking solution. Doxel’s clients have come to rely on our AI-powered Project Controls platform in the same way that drivers have learned to rely on satellite technology to avoid traffic accidents and slowdowns ahead of them.”
Ladha said that Doxel monitors project teams so that they may focus on fixing problems rather than finding them.
“Our predictive analytics enables building owners and general contractors to discover crucial risk variables that threaten to ruin their project before they are even aware of the risks,” he explained. “As a result, people are not learning about problems until it is too late to fix them.”
The idea is that by the time possible risk factors are identified, it is too late to avert cost overruns and project delays. Doxel has developed what it refers to as a “Construction Encyclopedia” throughout the years, using all of the data it has acquired to assist it in detecting possible danger concerns. The firm’s technology has helped its clients come in up to 11% under budget on projects and enjoy an average 38 percent boost in productivity.
How does Doxel Works?
Doxel’s platform works by accessing numerous real-time data sources on a project, such as 360-degree photos, Building Information Models (BIM), commonly known as 3D designs, as well as budget and schedule, in order to offer building owners and contractors with predictability and control. The objective is to help prevent a chain reaction of delays and increased expenses so that building owners and contractors can stay on schedule and on budget.
“Other firms do not connect all silos across the field, accounting, and schedule management,” added Ladha. “These are three distinct organizations that function independently, with no knowledge silos being bridged.”
Aside from cost overruns, the income loss associated with projects not being ready for usage as planned is exponentially devastating, according to Ladha. A multifamily developer, for example, who expects to make money by selling or renting condo units would lose money the longer the project takes to complete.
Doxel claims to have monitored tens of billions of dollars in capital expenditures for “a broad group” of Fortune 500 firms over the years, including Kaiser Permanente and Royal Dutch Shell. Doxel says that their predictive technology has saved businesses “tens of millions of dollars.”
“Our users are top executives faced with making multibillion-dollar choices on a weekly basis with minimal information,” Ladha explained. “They need to know whether they are on a budget and on time.”
Nikhil Sachdev, managing director at Insight Partners, stated that his firm is very enthusiastic about the scale of the challenge Doxel is tackling, as well as the company’s traction “with some of the world’s largest businesses, and their very defensible AI-first software.”
Conversations with clients indicated that previous to implementing Doxel’s technology, they had no means of correctly predicting the future status of their building projects.
“Most construction management software systems are still reliant on human data entry or photographs linked to drawings, requiring weeks of manual mining to glean information on a project’s cost and schedule performance,” Sachdev noted in an email. “Doxel is the only platform we’ve found that can absorb all necessary data, analyze it using AI, and predict how the project will appear in the future.”
Doxel, situated in Redwood City, California, intends to utilize its new funding to expand its platform and employ across engineering, sales, marketing, and product teams. Doxel now employs 75 people between locations in the United States and Bangalore. Over the following year, it plans to approximately double the size of its staff.
