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Crane-mounted site-monitoring start-up raises $5.5m

Versatile Natures, a tech start-up selling an artificial intelligence-based site management system that monitors projects from cranes, has raised $5.5m (£4.8m) to expand in North America and grow its teams in San Francisco and Tel-Aviv.

The company is promoting its patent-pending AI and Internet of Things platform, CraneView – a system that uses sensors mounted under the hook of a crane to collect and analyse data on the progress of a project, and to send alerts to site managers.

Versatile Natures says CraneView can be integrated with BIM, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and project management systems.

Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) led the round of financing, along with Conductive Ventures and construction technology experts Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot, as well as previous investor, Root Ventures, the company said in a press release.

“We are very grateful for the immense support from top tier investors and high-profile strategic partners,” said Versatile Natures’ co-founder and CEO, Meirav Oren. “RBVC and others bring deep experience across the global construction and manufacturing industry and we’re looking forward to expanding to new cities across North America and growing our exceptional team.”

“We’re excited to support the Versatile Natures team in their mission to bring more efficiency and profitability to construction projects everywhere,” said RBVC managing director Dr Ingo Ramesohl. “We believe Versatile Natures is building an industry-changing AI and IoT solution that will transform how the world views construction.”

CraneView is in use on construction sites now in San Francisco, New York, Miami, Seattle, San Jose, Fort Lauderdale, and Hawaii, the company said.

Versatile Natures has also received support from Autodesk, Tidhar, and Urban Us and is an alumnus of URBAN-X, the MINI-backed accelerator for startups reimagining city life, and of MassChallenge (Gold Winners).

Image: The system gathers site data from sensors attached to the hooks of cranes (Øyvind Holmstad/CC BY-SA 4.0)

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