New York City-based construction management software provider Trestle has raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding to expand its software engineering team and platform capabilities, the company announced. The round was led by New York VC firm Lerer Hippeau, with additional investment from MetaProp, Laconia Capital, Alumni Ventures, The LegalTech Fund, Redbud VC, and Meridian Ventures.
Founded in 2022, Trestle seeks to modernize project management within the heavy construction industry – think civil construction projects such as infrastructure. The company offers a centralized platform that automatically prequalifies contractors and manages vendors for such massive, complex undertakings. Trestle, which calls itself “the construction industry’s most advanced vendor risk management platform,” already has a database of 54,000 subcontractors and suppliers on its platform.
Trestle also touts its “AI-powered document handling, automated approvals, and precise data collection,” which it says enables organizations to quickly and accurately vet subcontractors and suppliers. The company’s founding team includes CEO Victor Zhang, a veteran of the heavy civil contracting sector, and CTO Jason Chen, a seasoned software developer.
MetaProp investor Jason Feder explained the New York-based proptech VC firm’s rationale for betting on Trestle in a blog post. “In the fragmented and dispersed world of construction, particularly in heavy civil projects, inefficiencies in vendor procurement and management have long been accepted as an unavoidable cost of doing business.”
“While the front-end (estimation) and back-end (project management) of the construction process have been addressed by modern technology, the middle (procurement and vendor selection/management) has not,” Feder notes.
Technologies focused on productivity and sustainability dominate new global investment in construction tech. Contech and cleantech drew $554 million in total investments across 79 deals during the second quarter, according to a report by Cemex Ventures.
While the number of deals increased by 20% quarter-on-quarter, the overall investment amount declined by 18%, the company noted. Tech focused on enhanced productivity accounted for 30% of investment during the quarter.