Doxel, a software company that uses computer vision to track and monitor the progress of construction jobsites, today announced that it raised $40 million in Series A funding.Insight Partners was the lead of the round. This included participation by existing backers Andreessen Horowitz and Amplo. The total amount raised for startups since December 2015 is $56.5 million. A16z participated in all Doxels rounds, from Series A to Series B. Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev, in addition to institutional investors, also invested as an angel in Doxels Series B round.Saurabh Ladha, co-founder and CEO, said that he couldn't disclose the value at which capital was raised but that it was more than 4x the amount of its $12 million Series B in early 2020. He called the Series B an "opportunistic raise."We raised because it was possible, at an incredible valuation. The entire series A is still in bank. He told TechCrunch that we didn't touch it. We have been cash flow neutral for that time because of our growth and bookings traction.After his family almost suffered financial ruin due to a two year delay in a major Indian construction project, Ladha decided to start Doxel.I thought we would lose our house. Ladha shared her experience with TechCrunch. It was the first time she made me aware of the negative impact construction has on people's livelihoods. As a child, I knew that predictability was what kept projects on schedule and within budget.Twenty years later, Ladha graduated Stanford University and learned that 90% projects are late or delivered on time.Ladha then teamed up with Robin Singh, Doxels CTO, in 2015 to found Doxel to build a computer-vision-powered predictive analytics platform designed to help owners and contractors navigate problems before they happen. Or put more simply, Doxel is building what it describes as the Waze for Construction platform.According to Ladha the company's greatest advantage over its competitors is its forward-looking insights on the construction industry.TechCrunch was told that many companies offer backward-looking analysis. We were the only company that offered a forward-looking, predictive solution. In much the same manner as drivers have come to depend on satellite technology to avoid accidents and slow downs ahead of them, Doxels customers rely on our AI-powered Project Controls platform.Ladha said that Doxel monitors project teams so they can concentrate on solving problems and not on finding them.He said that predictive analytics allows building owners and general contractors to spot potential risks before they are even aware of them. They don't find out about problems until it is too late to solve them.It is believed that potential risk factors can be discovered too late, resulting in project delays and cost overruns. Doxel's Construction Encyclopedia has been built over the years using all of the data it has collected. This helps in identifying potential risk factors.According to Ladha, the company claims its technology has allowed its customers to come in as low as 11% under budget for projects and have an average 38% increase productivity.Doxels works by tapping into multiple data sources in real time on a project such as 360-degree photos, Building Information Models (BIM), also known as 3D Designs, as well as budget, schedule and budget. This allows for both predictability as well as control for building owners and contractors. This is done to prevent delays and higher costs from causing a domino effect on building owners and contractors, allowing them to be more efficient in staying on schedule and within budget.Ladha stated that other companies don't bridge all silos between field, accounting, and schedule management. These three entities are distinct and operate independently, without sharing knowledge silos.Ladha pointed out that aside from cost overruns and loss of revenue, projects not being made available for use according to plan can be extremely devastating. Multifamily developers who expect to make money selling or renting condo units can lose their income if the project takes longer.Doxel claims that it has been able to track tens billions of capital expenditures over the years for a variety of Fortune 500 companies including Kaiser Permanente, Royal Dutch Shell, and others. Doxel claims that its predictive technology has saved companies millions of dollars.Ladha stated that our users are senior executives who have to make multibillion-dollar decisions every week with very little information. They must know if they are on budget and on time.Nikhil Sachdev is the managing director of Insight Partners. He said that his company was excited about the scale of the Doxel problem and the strong ties it has with the largest companies in the world.Customers revealed through conversations that they didn't have any way of accurately predicting the future status of their construction projects before Doxels technology was introduced.Sachdev sent an email stating that most construction management software programs still require manual data entry. Sachdev also mentioned that photos must be tagged to blueprints. This can lead to weeks of manual mining for insights into a project's cost and schedule performance. Doxel, the only tool that we have found, can insulate all the data and process it using their artificial intelligence to predict the future.Doxel, a California-based company, plans to use the new capital to expand its platform and to hire engineering, sales and marketing staff. Doxel currently has 75 employees in offices across the U.S. as well as Bangalore. The company plans to increase its workforce by approximately doubling it over the next one year.
