Construction technology start-up firm Trunk Tools has secured a $20-million series A round of funding, the company said Aug. 20. The capital outlay was led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from Innovation Endeavors, which had led the artificial intelligence platform's seed round—with total funding of $30 million raised to date, the tech firm said. Materials technology firm Fortera also announced new funding, banking $85 million in its series C round to scale up deployment of its reduced carbon cement production process that integrates with existing plant infrastructure, it noted. 

The round included participation from previous investors Khosla Ventures and Temasek and first-time investments from Wollemi Capital, NOVA by Saint-Gobain, Presidio Ventures and Alumni Ventures. With operations at a company plant in California underway, Fortera said it will use the funding to fit expand production of its ReAct green cement product, which it said uses 70% less carbon dioxide per ton than traditional cement.

From Tools to Platform

Trunk Tools, an AI-based platform that assists construction activities as varied as providing payment incentives to skilled labor based on a project's critical path and having AI on a cell phone that can respond to speech commands and bring up project documents, shop drawings, documentation or 3D model information. 

Trunk Tools CEO and founder Sarah Buchner said the firm is releasing a schedule agent, with funding also to be used to further refine its platform. The schedule agent uses Trunk Tools' data infrastructure to create a link between scheduled activities and documentation, ensuring projects are completed on time, on budget, and according to plan, says the firm. The AI views schedule files, independently monitoring upcoming project tasks to notify users about open tasks, discrepancies or possible logistical problems. 

It also automates the manual process of preparing for meetings with owners, team members or others. The AI is able to search all project documents to provide up-to-date information.  The technology is built on Trunk Tools’ existing proprietary AI platform, already used in the industry. "Trunk Tools is the platform. It's the brain," Buchner says. "It structures the unstructured data, and then on top of this brain ... we're deploying all of these agents."

Erica Brescia, managing director of Redpoint Ventures who co-founded software firm Bitnami, has joined the Trunk Tools board. "Sarah and her team have deep industry insight," Brescia said, contending that the firm's combined industry and AI expertise is "rarefied in construction and ... got us so excited about this deal."

Buchner said Redpoint's expertise and funding will enable Trunk Tools to accelerate products using generative AI in construction. Other investors in Trunk Tools include WND Ventures, the venture arm of contractor DPR; Suffolk Technology; AEC Angels; STO Building Group; Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures; Thornton Tomasetti/TTWiiN and others.

More Reduced Carbon Concrete

Fortera has produced proprietary, carbon-reducing cement at a CalPortland plant in Redding, Calif., for more than one year. Fortera's ReCarb process bolts onto existing plants and recarbonates calcium oxide by combining captured CO₂ from emissions. When dissolved, it sets up a reaction with calcium oxide to permanently mineralize it into the cement. Fortera said its process has reduced CO₂ in its material by up to 70%.

“Due to the scale of the industry, we won’t have an impact on emissions unless we have an economic pathway to expand globally,” said Ryan Gilliam, CEO and co-founder. “With the launch of our first plant and the close of this funding round, we’re entering into the next phase of our development." He said the comany stays competitive with traditional cement pricing by leveraging existing sector feedstock and processes.

Gilliam said Fortera has memoranda of understanding in place with several cement producers to add its machines in their plants this year.

 "Our investment in Fortera aligns with [the] priority toward decarbonization of industries and our commitment of working with startups that are moving the world forward with sustainable innovations,” said Basma Kharrat, vice president of external venturing at producer Saint-Gobain.