Reportedly, the construction industry is the world’s most carbon-intensive industry accounting for 11% of global carbon emissions with processes such as extraction, transportation, demolition, and disposal of materials in a linear approach. To make construction more environmentally friendly, it is important to make it circular than linear.
London headquartered Qflow, a construction tech scaleup is a digital platform, which aims to decarbonise the construction industry.
Snaps £7.2M investment
Qflow just snapped a £7.2 million Series A investment in a round led by London-headquartered climate tech VC Systemiq Capital that backed Hoxton Farms and Circulor. In addition, Ascension Ventures, Bridge Investment Group, Gravel Rd, Greensoil Proptech Ventures, Grosvenor, John Emrey; CEO of Alder properties and former CEO of Lendlease; MMC, and Suffolk Tech also contributed to the round.
This round follows the £2.4 million funding scored across two seed rounds from PiLabs, MMC, Goldacre, Entrepreneur First (EF London 10), and angel investors. The fresh funds will enable Qflow scale its perations in the UK and grow its presence in the US and Australia, and to support its mission to decarbonise global construction.
Also, Qflow is hiring across commercial and technical roles, hoping to grow its team of 30 by 200% by the end of 2024.
Brittany Harris, Co-Founder & CEO of Qflow, said: “Jade and I love the construction industry, it literally builds the world around us. But for it to build the sustainable future we need, it must change and reduce its negative impacts on our planet. To us, it was clear we had to tackle our own industry to have a chance of leaving this world in a better place, and this is why we founded Qflow. We are thrilled with the investors that have joined us in this round. The support we’ve received from big players in the sector shows they also see the importance of changing processes and accelerating this transformation towards a more sustainable future.”
Matthew Goldstein, General Partner at Systemiq Capital, added: “Qflow uniquely aligns the goals of construction CFOs and sustainability executives, accelerating customers’ decarbonisation ambitions while saving them time, money, and reducing regulatory risk. We are leading their Series A at a time when most VCs are scaling back their activities to accelerate and capitalise on this unique opportunity and critical mission. Further commitment from real estate and construction heavyweights Grosvenor, Bridge Investment Group and others is a testament to the value of Qflow’s solution and the work they are doing to transform the industry.”
Jeremy Ford, Chief Investment Officer at Bridge Ventures and Managing Director at Bridge Investment Group, stated: “We’re excited to support the solution Qflow provides. As a vertically integrated owner-operator, our in-house team quickly understood Qflow’s value proposition. The ability to efficiently incorporate this solution into our business makes this partnership dynamic and strategic.”
Andy Doyle, Innovation Director at Grosvenor Property UK, said: “We’re delighted to collaborate with the Qflow team both as an investor and as a customer. We see real potential in what this technology can do for the construction sector – it makes the management of deliveries and waste much easier for our onsite teams and provides greater accuracy, and accountability, in our environmental reporting. To create circular supply chains in construction, we must be able to reliably account for what happens with construction waste – Qflow provides this clarity.”
Digital platform to decarbonise construction industry
Founded in 2018 by Brittany Harris and Jade Cohen after they met in New York while volunteering for World Merit, Qflow is a platform for young and collaborative global citizens trying to make a positive impact in the world. They founded Qflow with the sole purpose of leaving the world in a better place than they found it.
The women-led digital platform enables construction teams to collect real-time materials and waste data at the source, enabling project teams to make informed decisions on cost, carbon, and quality. Its unique features and benefits include reducing waste by providing real-time data and analytics, increasing efficiency by automating and digitising a currently manual process, providing transparency over carbon savings, enabling the circular economy, and enhancing performance.
Already, Qflow is used by companies, including Berkeley Group, Canary Wharf Group, Grosvenor, Landsec, Morgan Sindall, Multiplex, Workplace Futures, and more.
