Amsterdam-based Monumental, a robotic startup that aims to solve labour, cost, and sustainability challenges in the global construction industry, announced on Thursday that it has emerged from two-and-half years of operating in stealth mode.
The company also announced the raising of a $25M (approximately €23.2M) funding round co-led by Plural and Hummingbird. Other investors, including Northzone, Foundamental, and NP-Hard Ventures, participated in the round.
The Dutch company will use the funds to grow its team of hardware and software engineers, scale the number of robots it can deploy on sites across Europe, and increase the types of blocks and construction tasks the robots can manage.
In Europe, more than half (57 per cent) of the countries are facing a severe shortage of bricklayers. In the UK alone, there is an estimated shortfall of 75,000 bricklayers needed to build the 300,000 houses required annually by 2025. Moreover, 82 million Europeans are at risk of homelessness due to a lack of affordable housing, which is holding back productivity in the global construction industry.
Salar al Khafaji, co-founder and CEO at Monumental, says, “The construction industry is one of the largest and most important in the world, yet it’s held back by global labour shortages and rising supply chain costs. At Monumental, we’re working to help the industry meet these challenges. Our agile, intelligent, and adaptable robots and software blend human expertise with robotic efficiency in a way that the industry has never seen before. They will revolutionise not just how buildings are constructed but transform the economics of the construction industry itself. We’re delighted to have this stellar team of investors joining us on this mission.”
Monumental: Automating on-site construction
Founded by Salar al Khafaji and Sebastiaan Visser, Monumental aims to fill a crucial gap in the labor market, especially in regions like Europe and the U.S., where housing demands exceed available skilled workers.
The company produces small, electric, agile, autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) that move freely around building sites to assist with bricklaying and address labour shortages and rising costs.
The robot features sensors, computer vision, and small cranes.
Each Monumental robot can precisely and efficiently place bricks and mortar in industrial and residential walls.
Powered by Monumental’s AI-powered software — Atrium, Monumentak robots are compact enough to navigate through tight corners, and doorways, or fit inside a van – anywhere a human can go.
The company has three robots working together to build walls. One robot carries bricks from a pile to the wall-building robot. Another robot does the same with mortar, which comes from a big storage container.
These robots give the bricks and mortar to the wall-building robot. It has two tall cranes to lay bricks from the ground up to the first floor. If it needs to work higher, it goes on a scissor lift that raises it.
The wall-building robot then puts the mortar and bricks in place all on its own. However, a human mason is still needed for some tasks, smoothing out the mortar and putting in wall ties to hold the bricks in place, claims the company.
Despite being cheaper than other construction robots, Monumental does not sell their robots to construction companies. Instead, they offer a brick-laying service for their customers.
The Dutch company charges its customers based on the number of bricks laid, similar to what a human bricklayer would charge. The cost is comparable to a human bricklayer’s fee.
“This removes the financial risk to contractors involved in purchasing and operating the machines while also reducing the technical risk of having to learn and validate the tech,” says the company.
Additionally, Monumental ensures there is always a human bricklayer present to assist the robots and to handle any aspect of the job that the robots are unable to perform.
The investor
Plural is an early-stage investment fund that backs the most ambitious founders on a mission to change the world through technology.
Based in Tallinn, Estonia, and London, UK, Plural’s mission is to have a GDP-level impact on Europe, address systemic risks, and reduce the opportunity gap worldwide through the companies it backs.
Sten Tamkivi, Partner at Plural says, “Monumental’s approach is the perfect coming together of ambition and expertise, the rising power and impact of AI, and the shrinking cost and size of cutting-edge hardware to address an industry that’s at breaking point. Something significant has to happen if we’re to meet the housing demands of millions and reduce the economic and environmental burden of the built world and Monumental is going to be something significant.”
Hummingbird Ventures is a global, early-stage fund that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs at the earliest stages, leading pre-seed to series A rounds.
Hummingbird is currently investing out of its fifth fund, a $200M vehicle, and the investment strategy is one of high conviction and selectivity, meaning that the fund only invests in a handful of companies per year, doubling/tripling down across multiple rounds.
Firat Ileri, Partner at Hummingbird, says, “Europe’s infrastructure has been suffering from the shortage of skilled labourers for years and we’re excited to support Monumental and its innovative approach to solving this challenge. Monumental’s robots won’t just improve efficiencies on building sites, but the technology has the potential to enhance safety, optimise workflows and attract more talent into the field who are excited to learn new skills. We’re confident Monumental will deliver long-term benefits for the industry and society as a whole.”
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/amsterdam-monumental-gets-23-2m/
