Calgary-based proptech startup Mercator AI has raised $5.1 million CAD ($3.75 million USD) in an all-equity seed round as it develops its construction intelligence platform for business developers.
Founded in 2020 by Chloe Smith (CEO) and Hogan Lee (COO), Mercator’s real-time construction intelligence platform mines and analyzes millions of data points across commercial and industrial projects to identify signals of early construction activity, reveal who’s involved, and tie the active project information back to company profiles. This allows business developers in construction, real estate, and manufacturing to find and qualify new business opportunities faster, according to Mercator.
Currently, Mercator is live in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin.
Mercator is part of a growing industry for construction intelligence, with incumbents and startups alike offering data and analysis for construction companies. What makes Mercator unique in this space is its focus on business developers, helping them find leads by providing more visibility into early construction projects across a certain region, not limited to a singular construction company.
According to Mercator, it will use this new addition of capital to accelerate its expansion in the United States (US) and Canadian markets in 2023, as well as grow its headcount. The startup said it currently has 11 employees, with plans to hire five more across its data and engineering teams.
Over the next 24 months, Mercator said it will also accelerate the development of its early project detection tool to support pre-construction teams with macro industry insights, competitive intelligence, and client monitoring tools.
RELATED: Mercator AI raises $1 million CAD to fuel North American expansion
Freestyle Ventures and Builders VC co-led the funding round, which Mercator said was oversubscribed. Others that participated included existing backers of Mercator, such as Standup Ventures and The51; as well as new investors like Zacua Ventures. Dustin DeVan, former CEO of Building Connected, also contributed to the financing, alongside other angel investors.
Mercator has raised $4.46 million USD in total funding, including a $1 million CAD pre-seed round in June 2022. Its other backers include Mallorie Brodie, CEO of the project construction platform Bridgit, and Stephany Lapierre, CEO of the AI supply chain procurement startup TealBook (who invested through Fresh Founders, where she is an LP).
Within the last year, Mercator said it expanded from one to seven markets. Currently, its platform is live in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin.
Featured image courtesy Mercator AI.