Billdr relaunches as new “OS” for construction back office, raises $3.2 million

Software company Billdr, which is building the AI-native operating system for construction, announced in late January that it had relaunched its platform as an all-in-one operating system for small and mid-sized general contractors. 

The firm has raised $3.2 million USD in a seed funding round led by White Star Capital – and with participation from One Way Ventures, Desjardins Capital, asterX and Formentera Capital – which is set to be used to enhance its new business model.   

Billdr PRO, an all-in-one construction management platform for small and mid-sized general contractors which covers sales, clients, team and project management, and finances. It unifies tedious tasks such as estimating, scheduling, to-dos, change orders, purchase orders, timesheets, daily logs, payments, communications, and procurement under one singular roof. 

With this, it will replace the fragmented reality of spreadsheets, texts and disconnected apps that 75% of small and mid-sized general contractors struggle with today. 

The startup launched a beta version of Billdr PRO just 18 months ago, and has since grown to serve hundreds of general contractors across the U.S. and Canada, reaching seven-figure annual recurring revenue and processing more than $10 million USD in payments volume. 

From marketplace to operating system

Billdr’s journey began as a home renovation marketplace, connecting homeowners with contractors across the U.S. and Canada. But, after supporting thousands of projects and over $100 million USD in construction spend, the startup identified that the real bottleneck was not demand – it was lacking modern software for contractors to manage their businesses efficiently.

“The horizontal software tools SMB contractors use were never built for the construction industry – we saw this firsthand in our early years in the trenches with GCs,” said Bertrand Nembot, founder and CEO at Billdr.  

Most small and mid-sized general contractors run their back office with a combination of outdated Excel and accounting software such as Quickbooks or SAGE; estimating, scheduling, invoicing, cost tracking, and client management all live in a different places, without communicating with each other, resulting in operational chaos and wasted time. 

In 2023, the firm moved to focus entirely on building a vertical, modern, intuitive,and AI-native SaaS that could handle everything from sales to contract management and invoicing. The result is Billdr PRO. 

“For over two years, we focused on building software, one feature at a time. We gained trust from GCs, one customer at a time. Today, we serve hundreds of construction businesses across the US and Canada,” said Nembot.

With its bet on operational efficiency, cost reductions and saving valuable time, Billdr has acquired hundreds of paying customers across North America, with strong customer retention. Over $1 billion USD worth of quotes are now being sent annually via the Billdr platform, and thousands of construction workers interact with its software every month. 

The digital backbone of construction: a process

The estimating, managing, tracking, and collaboration that took the average small and mid-sized general contractor up to 20 hours per week to complete using spreadsheets now takes half the time with Billdr PRO. 

The startup also plans to go further with upcoming AI-native features such as voice-to-action command, AI receptionists for construction, and text-to-agents that help contractors manage workflows hands-free. 

Billdr also plans to use the new funding to launch a suite of fintech tools – including bill pay, corporate cards, lending, and insurance – as well as a materials procurement module that embeds live materials pricing from multiple constriction suppliers directly into the estimating workflow. 

“Construction is one of the largest and least digitized sectors in the economy,” said Sanjay Zimmermann, General Partner at White Star Capital. 

“With a focused product, Billdr really stood out to us with a platform designed exclusively for the backbone of the industry: small and mid-sized general contractors. They’re building a product that understands their workflows deeply and leverages AI to eliminate friction, not add complexity.”

Featured image: Getty Images via Unsplash+

Featured image: Getty Images via Unsplash+

Disclosure: This article mentions clients of an Espacio portfolio company.