BuildNext, a proptech business, has acquired $3.5 million in equity funding in its Pre-Series A funding round led by Madhumala Ventures, a subsidiary of Pidilite Industries.
Existing investors Konglo Ventures, Vineet Kumar from Native, and Deep Gupta from FatEngine participated in the round.
BuildNext will use the funding to grow its research and development skills as well as upgrade its virtual reality tech experience centres. It would also use the cash to grow geographically to newer markets such as Bengaluru, Chennai, and Coimbatore, while reinforcing its position in existing ones.
Commenting on the fundraising, Gopi Krishnan, cofounder and CEO of BuildNext, said “Our aim is to use our custom technology platform to drive transparency and overcome inefficiencies in the process of constructing and designing a house. We have developed objective parameters to decide how good a home design is and these are put to test again and again every day for continuous improvement.”
The Kochi-based firm, founded in 2015 by two IIM Bangalore graduates, Gopikrishnan V and Finaz Naha, provides consumers with tech-enabled home construction and interior design services.
It operates a virtual reality-enabled experience centre chain across Kerala and Telangana.
These experience centres help clients decide what type of construction the business will execute while also eliminating bottlenecks in the process.
BuildNext holds a patent for integrating real-time construction material prices to virtual reality, allowing clients to make more informed selections.
It has also created a mobile project management software that allows users to monitor construction operations from anywhere in the world. The app provides a daily summary of the site’s construction operations.
The firm primarily targets real estate sites that are 1-5 floor single or multi-family residential developments with a total area of 1500 sq ft.
It competes with companies like LivSpace, Kraftinn, and HomeLane in the home decor sector, and startups like Ivy Homes and YouKraft in the home construction business.
The real estate sector in India is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, up from $200 billion in 2021. According to one forecast, the proptech industry will likely attract investments totaling $1 billion by 2025.
According to the survey, some of the leading organisations that will catch investors’ attention will disrupt the market with new technologies such as AI, VR, and IoT.
In recent times, Y Combinator-backed Ivy Homes, Better Capital-led Kolo and YOUKRAFT are some of the proptech startups that have bagged investments in the home decorations and construction industry.
