Kwant AI Raises Millions to Improve Construction Efficiency and Safety

New York-based AI SaaS startup Kwant AI brings AI technology to the field, adding efficiency and safety to the global construction industry with the System of Record of Workforce. The startup announced a $3.9 million seed round with investment from LAUNCH, Fairstead, Pearl Fund, 7BC Venture Capital, Forefront Ventures, Martinson ventures, and Serra Ventures. Funds will be allocated to facilitate customer expansion, scaling the platform, and staff hiring.

Kwant AI protects lives and adds over 15% toward operational efficiencies, saving huge costs for the construction industry. The solution is proven to work in large deployments such as the new airports in New York, EV factories in Detroit and Tennessee with over 10,000 construction workers using the technology daily.

Andrew Romans, General Partner of 7BC Venture capital said, “On the treasure map of construction AI companies we mark an X on Kwant AI.”

Wearable badges, equipment trackers, and deep learning

The Kwant solution deploys smart-wearable badges and equipment trackers for project sites where tradespeople, materials, and equipment are routinely monitored. The low-powered sensors with long battery life collect real-time data, predictive analytics for high risk, and send daily alerts. The network penetrates through building materials and can cover up to 15 miles allowing for communication in any direction.

Kwant AI uses deep learning for accurate x, y, and z positioning of workers and assets. Kwant AI groups unstructured data using AI algorithms to detect patterns in thousands of project data sets, helping provide quality recommendations on road mapping.

“As a safety and productivity platform, when you look at the other options in the market, Kwant is best in class for our large-scale projects. Our value realized has been through avoiding job sites shutdowns due to variants of the safety incidents and the pandemic, gaining a more precise understanding of the exact time and duration of exposures, evacuation, and rescue as well as tracking high-value assets and equipment utilization,” said John Jurewicz, Head of Innovation, Walbridge Construction.

Great results for Fairstead in the middle of the pandemic

Kwant AI’s platform was recently deployed at Park 79, a hotel-to-affordable housing conversion in New York, developed by Fairstead.

Since November 2020, over 200 registered workers, worker compliance, and certifications, including OSHA and SST cards, have been centralized in Kwant AI’s single database. More than 10,000+ hours of worker data were collected in 39 different zones for tracking. Kwant AI also helped Fairstead manage and deploy COVID-19 protocols for temperature scans and contact tracing.

“Leveraging the Kwant AI platform helped us improve tracking and efficiency for a complex project in the middle of a pandemic. It is a best-in-class technology we are excited about deploying at future sites,” said Tyler McIntyre, Managing Partner, Design and Construction, at Fairstead.

Combining timesheet tracking with 5D-BIM

“Kwant combines field staff workforce timesheet tracking with fully integrated 5D-BIM, enabling us to analyze daily productivity and WIP across all our projects with dashboards and drill-down insights, along with scheduled reports. They also worked with us to integrate the timesheet service with our accounting ERP to streamline reporting for payroll. Overall, this is helping us understand project performance and proactively adjust our workforce plan, and updating the timesheet and WIP through the model saves us 8-10 per week by not having to manually measure and calculate material quantities,” said Andy Leek, Vice President – Technology & Innovation, Paric Construction.

Kwant AI’s platform supports customers, partners, and some of the largest builders in the world like Delta, DPR, Walbridge, Moretenson, Gilbane, Paric, McCarthy, Alberici, Comcast, and Wesco across airports, electric vehicle factories, roads, data centers, and commercial buildings with a portfolio value of over $60bn.

Currently, Kwant AI is tackling several high-profile projects, helping prevent construction delays, and more importantly keeping workers safe. Recently, Kwant AI helped prevent fatal accidents. Malbro Construction saw an increase of 11% greater productivity from proactive alerts and data-driven insights.

Source: PR Newswire, March 29, 2022