It can be difficult to incorporate features into a building's design because of the amount of technology out there.
cove.tool is a startup that wants to make sure buildings are sustainable from the beginning. The Atlanta-based startup, which has raised $30 million in a Series B round of funding led by Coatue, claims that its software helped design and construction professionals avoid 5x more carbon than a car.
Robert Downey Jr.'s FootPrint Coalition was involved in the financing along with other backers. The company has raised $36.5 million and the round was pre-emptive, according to CEO and co-founder Sandeep Ahuja. She said that it was up 10x from the company's $5.7 million raise in November of 2020.
cove.tool gives architects and contractors the ability to input the details of a project and get recommendations for how to maximize daylighting, solar and materials, among other things. cove.tool is powered by machine learning and is designed to give architects, engineers and contractors a way to measure a wide range of building performance metrics.
About 40% of all carbon emissions is in buildings, so Ahuja said that's the reason why they exist. The goal of cove.tool is to make the process of material selection and building simulation much simpler so that people can pick better material alternatives that are not only low carbon, but also cost optimal.
In August of 2017, Cove.tool launched the alpha version of its software. More than 25,000 projects have been built using cove.tool's software. More than 15,000 people use the software in 30 countries, including architects, engineers, contractors and building product manufacturers.
Ahuja said that cove.tool is making the built world sustainable and efficient in the fight against climate change.
The equivalent of planting 450 million trees for 10 years is what Cove.tool says it has done this year. The startup plans to use its new capital to expand its suite of products and to add more people to its team.
The company's core competitors are consultants that are doing similar work manually.
She said that the ability to do something in 30 minutes was the main differentiating factor.
The company is not yet profitable, but it could be if it stopped scaling operations.
In the months to come, we will further expand our product suite, offering integrations across the AEC ecosystem, making performance data even more accessible. She said that the carbon problem is a data problem. By using the frameworks we can simplify the practice of analyzing building data and sharing that data with the many professionals across the building and design process, ultimately empowering seamless collaboration and improving project outcomes.
It plans to scale its sales and marketing efforts in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and the EU.
The construction and operation of buildings accounts for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions according to Robert Downey Jr.
He wrote via email that combining energy efficiency, design and transparency for material selection cove.tool addresses this massive problem. It is a prime example of a business that uses machine learning and principled leadership to build a better future.
One of the most important environmental challenges is sustainable construction, according to David Cahn.
He wrote via email that Cove's approach has the potential to make architecture easier and cleaner.
