Field Materials is the world’s first material purchasing software powered by AI. General contractors and specialty subcontractors use Field Materials’ web and mobile apps to streamline their material procurement from requesting quotes during pre-construction to managing orders and deliveries to the construction site.
Field Materials, an AI software startup with a bold vision to disrupt the $2 trillion global market of construction material purchasing, has raised a $4.65 million Seed round led by Blumberg Capital with participation from Zacua Ventures. Founders Eldar Sadikov and Victor Gane are Stanford-educated serial entrepreneurs who sold their previous company to PayPal in 2018 and have backgrounds in AI, payments, e-commerce, and construction. The round is joined by prominent industry executives including the former SVP of Lowe’s and former VP of Home Depot, GM of Payments at Google, and a co-founder of YouTube.
Construction is the second largest industry in the world yet it is significantly behind other major industries in adopting technology. 95% of field workers say they’d be willing to use digitals tools to streamline parts of their work and >75% of construction contractors use mobile devices to access work-related information. However, contractors continue to request quotes, place orders for materials, communicate changes, and report issues through phone calls, emails, and text messages. Orders are often miscommunicated or dropped between the field and the office or the contractor and the supplier, with information siloed in email or phone messages.
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Field Materials’ web and mobile apps streamline the purchasing process across the entire lifecycle of a construction project – from requesting quotes during pre-construction to managing orders and deliveries to the construction site. The software digitizes workflows that were traditionally done in Excel, email, and paper. It eliminates errors and delays in projects through AI-powered checking of delivery slips and invoices as well as automation of notifications and reminders.
Field Materials is transformative in that it provides a centralized system of record to track what the contractor and supplier agree upon and automates follow-up to ensure timely closure. The company partners with both general contractors and specialty subs that buy large quantities of construction materials from trade-specialized suppliers. It works seamlessly with existing estimation and accounting software and relies on well established communication channels between contractors and suppliers. By automatically capturing all email and text messages, the platform ensures that everyone on the team has complete visibility into material orders.
The initial customers of the platform were specialty subs but the company is now getting rapid traction with self-performing GCs. Andy Ball, the former CEO of Webcor (one of the largest GCs in the US) and currently President of oWow, says “Field Materials’ platform provides an essential link between the field, the office, and the vendors.” Norbert Young, an industry veteran and former president of McGraw-Hill Construction, says “Field Materials has a profound effect on the efficiency of our industry, where miscommunication between contractors and suppliers is one of the top reasons for project delays and budget overruns.”
Field Materials investors see great potential for a transformative business. Juan Pujadas, veteran finance and technology executive and advisor at Blumberg Capital, says: “Eldar and Victor are serial entrepreneurs with a successful track record, deep industry knowledge, and an extensive network of industry executives. We believe Field Materials has the team and technology to transform one of the world’s largest industries.” Vivin Hegde, general partner at Zacua Ventures, a VC specializing in construction, says: “Material procurement is poised to be disrupted and several multi-billion dollar companies will emerge as a result. We’ve scouted and looked at dozens of companies in this space and are deeply impressed by what Field Materials is building. They not only have the best team, product and go-to-market strategy that we’ve seen but have also found ways to minimize friction in every step of the process, which we believe is key to adoption.”
