Artificial intelligence and robotics continue to be big drivers of construction technology, with Procore announcing a partnership with NVIDIA on high-performance data center design and workplace tech startup Kewazo securing a new round of funding.
The robotics company focused on the movement of scaffolding and construction materials announced on March 19 a new funding round of $35 million backed by Chevron Technology Ventures, Asahi Kasei, Benson Capital, Mana Ventures, Gaingels and Atlas Ventures, along with lead investor Schooner Capital and existing investors True Ventures and Cybernetix Ventures.
Kewazo’s lifting robot, Liftbot, has been deployed at more than 20 industrial sites in North America and Europe, including refineries, petrochemical plants, chemical complexes, electrical facilities and construction sites. Homeowners and contractors use it as a replacement for tasks typically handled by cranes, manual scaffolding, and manual material handling.
Tthe Future of physical AI of industrial facilities
Kewazo has been collecting structured operational data from its deployments everywhere from Houston to Ireland. The company is now using that data and this round of funding to build its physical AI platform.
Support from Chevron Technology Ventures and Asahi Kasei, two major energy and materials players, is new in this funding round. CEO and co-founder Artem Kuchukov said the capital will accelerate deployment capability, expand to additional workflows and deepen integration into existing customer sites.
“Our customers hear about robotics, but rarely see robots operating in their plants,” says Kuchukov. “Kewazo changes that. We help industrial asset owners embrace automation by delivering instant value in vertical material movement, and many customers are already asking us to expand into additional workflows. With the support of Schooner Capital, Chevron Technology Ventures, Asahi Kasei and our existing investors, we are accelerating this change.”
Funding round leader Schoonover cited Kewazo’s anticipated investment in AI as one of the main drivers of its investment as automation continues to change construction and heavy industry.
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“Robotics and automation are transforming industrial operations, mirroring the adoption of AI throughout the economy,” said Alexandra Manick, CEO of Schooner Capital.
Procore partners with NVIDIA
On March 16 at NVIDIA’s GPU Compute technology conference in San Jose, California, Procore announced an integration between its build management platform and the NVIDIA Omniverse DSX Blueprint, with the goal of improving how complex infrastructures like high-performance data centers, or in NVIDIA’s words, “AI factories,” are designed and built.
Since these facilities are being designed together at an ecosystem scale for hyperscale customers who want maximum efficiency, even a minor construction change made in the field can cause major problems, such as disrupting airflow or hindering GPU performance. NVIDIA and Procore seek to address this challenge by helping construction teams model their design changes in a high-fidelity, physically accurate 3D model.
“What gets built in the real world often deviates from the plan the moment a project starts,” said Steve Davis, president of product and technology at Procore. “Our integration with the NVIDIA Omniverse DSX Blueprint keeps this digital thread unbroken. By moving beyond static drawings and models to predictive AI simulations, we’ll help our customers mitigate risk and improve performance in ways that were previously impossible.”
Under the deal, the companies are unifying Procore’s “work and collaboration system” with NVIDIA Omniverse’s augmented and virtual reality systems to connect construction data to the digital world in real time. Procore will act as a central hub, automatically translating and synchronizing complex 3D models from more than 15 different BIM and CAD formats into a live digital twin that is accelerated with NVIDIA Omniverse libraries.
By synchronizing project data, leveraging NVIDIA Omniverse libraries and OpenUSD, the open source industry standard for 3D interoperability, this framework and workflow aim to produce a digital twin that is fully optimized for end-of-project operations.
