Prescient closes $50M of Series E funding

BIM design and building technology company Prescient has closed a Series E funding round of $50 million at a pre-money valuation of $650 million. This comes after a $45 million raise last December. Led by Eldridge Industries, this round should further boost Prescient’s ability to grow globally and support its mission of “attainable housing,” said Satyen Patel, Prescient's executive chairman.

The company, which has a compounded annual growth rate from 2013 through 2017 of 119%, is building in 17 states and has plans to expand throughout the U.S. The industry is receptive. Prescient recently won a 2-million-square-foot contract in California, which the company says is more production than it achieved in all of 2017 combined, when it produced 1.8 million square feet, equating to 2,700 units.

Prescient CEO Magued Eldaief spoke with Construction Dive earlier this year about prefabrication's rising status in the design world and how technology can help advance it. "From the earliest stages of the design process to the finished structure, digital technologies are beginning to bring greater efficiency and scalability to the construction industry," Eldaief said. "Digital construction technologies such as BIM software, CAD to CAM and robotics are disrupting the entire sector and paving the way for several advanced trends to gain popularity within construction."

AECOM, Bluebeam partner with California on building design review process

AECOM and Bluebeam have partnered to streamline California’s Division of the State Architect (DSA) design review process. DSA, which oversees design and construction for K-12 schools, community colleges and other state-leased and state-owned facilities, reviews about 4,000 projects each year worth a total of $6 billion in construction costs. The full digital design review process will track response times, foster sustainability through reduced printing and enhance productivity for all involved parties.

Bluebeam software’s real-time collaboration capabilities will enable various parties to communicate across entities, improve review times and support consistency across DSA offices, the company said.

Working closely with DSA staff, AECOM and Bluebeam have provided new procedures and training to help the division initiate the new digital design review process by year's end. The companies are collaborating to determine which soft-start projects are candidates for the new process.

StructionSite, PCL Construction join forces

StructionSite and PCL Construction said they have partnered to continually innovate the StructionSite product, which provides 360-degree photo and video documentation and allows users to virtually walk through jobsite. PCL Construction has provided guidance and suggestions about how StructionSite can continue to improve processes and deliver a valuable product for building teams and owners. 

StructionSite’s newest platform, VideoWalk, allows construction workers to walk through the jobsite while recording 4K 360-degree videos that, after being uploaded, can automatically track and stitch a walking path onto a floor plan to allow individuals to virtually visit any location where the user physically walked.

Besix Group, Proximus announce smart buildings partnership

Belgian companies Besix Group and Proximus have partnered to create solutions for smart buildings. Besix Group, which specializes in high-rise and complex buildings and infrastructure, and Proximus, an information and telecommunication company that provides Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for building occupant comfort, plan to focus on smart building solutions in the hospitality, working environment and safety and security construction categories, as well as for building efficiency and insight.

Smart buildings resulting from the partnership's solutions could be completed before next summer, according to a press statement from Proximus.

Cityzenith, Stanford U partner on Digital Cities Initiative

Cityzenith, a developer of the universal 3D data platform Smart World Pro, has become a special sponsor of the Digital Cities Initiative at Stanford University's Global Projects Center. Stanford researchers will utilize Cityzenith’s platform, with more than 250 million data records and advanced features, to build artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning applications.

According to the company, the resulting AI analytics will help form predictions about urban and campus activities,  including operations, resident satisfaction, real estate transactions and ROI value flows, and then visualize and analyze the results in Cityzenith’s Smart World Pro 3D city model environments. Apps developed by Stanford researchers will initially focus on ROI use cases for property owners and managers. 

CompanyCam announces integration with DroneDeploy

Contractor photo solution company CompanyCam has integrated with drone software company DroneDeploy. CompanyCam users will be able to take advantage of DroneDeploy's app market to upload plan data and individual images from drone flights directly to CompanyCam. This integration will allow users of either platform to import drone photos straight into the desired CompanyCam project.