Kitchener-based Bridgit, which offers a project management platform for construction businesses, has raised $6.2 million CAD in a Series A round led by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Capital Women in Technology Venture Fund.
“We’re excited to partner with Bridgit as they continue to disrupt the construction market.”
Other investors include Salesforce Ventures, Sands Capital Ventures, and Vanedge Capital Partners. A debt-financing deal with CIBC Innovation Banking is also in the works, which would bring Bridgit’s total new capital to $7.75-million.
“Bridgit’s inherent understanding of its customers’ needs is impressive and foundational in empowering customers to embrace technology,” said Michelle Scarborough, managing director of BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Fund. “We’re excited to partner with Bridgit as they continue to disrupt the construction market and bring innovation to an industry on the brink of enormous change.”
RELATED: Bridgit’s co-founders on mentorship & getting comfortable with “trying and failing” (#BetaKit1on1)
Bridgit’s mobile-first software solutions are used by general contractors, engineering firms, and real-estate developers throughout North America. Some of its solutions include Bridgit Quality, a kick-off to close-out inspection management solution, and Bridgit Insights, a dashboard of a project’s task and inspection metrics. Bridgit told The Globe and Mail that its software is used in up to 10,000 projects at a given time.
The company plans to use the $6.2 million in funding to continue its growth in the US (one of its largest markets), focusing on increasing its presence its existing markets such as New York, Seattle, Chicago, and Miami as well as carving out space in new cities, including Texas, where it has recently been more active. The funding will also help Bridgit add a new enterprise product to its software offerings later this year.
“Investors were excited about how complimentary that [product] was to our existing offering and just the customer interest in that. Those two things combined are really what brought about this Series A, in addition to the existing foundation of our business and growth,” Mallorie Brodie, the co-founder and CEO of Bridgit told BetaKit.
The company was co-founded by Brodie and Lauren Lake, after the two met in Next 36 young-entrepreneur program in Toronto in early 2013. Its team is 50 percent female, and boasts full-pay equity for its employees.
The company was also a part of the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab, and in 2016, raised a $2.2 million CAD seed round led by Hyde Park Venture Partners with participation from Vanedge Capital.
“It’s one thing for an entrepreneur to have a vision and understand their market, and another to convince a group of investors that they have that shared vision,” Brodie noted. “We feel really thankful that we’re able to get that alignment in our vision and really go to the table with a strong track record of success from our prior years of performance. It’s sort of a way to validate that we have been really working hard as a team and company, and put that market validation out there for our customers to see, and the overall tech ecosystem to see.”
With files from Meagan Simpson
Image courtesy Bridgit.