Dive Brief:
- Newforma, a construction information management technology provider, has acquired Lumi AI, an artificial intelligence startup, according to a Wednesday announcement. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
- With the move, Newforma will connect Toronto-based Lumi’s agentic AI into Vojo, Newforma’s AI assistant that lives on the company’s agentic framework, according to the announcement. Newforma will integrate the agent into its platforms that hold more than two decades of project data, which include RFIs, submittals and communication history.
- Lumi’s AI helps businesses use plain language queries to investigate and uncover patterns in their data. Going forward, planned capabilities for Vojo include natural language search and cross-project queries across project data, per the announcement. Newforma CEO Peter Cannone told Construction Dive via email that Lumi will not be accessible to non-Newforma customers.
Dive Insight:
When it comes to data issues that can crop up for builders, Cannone said firms’ problems do not lie within their tech stacks. Instead, problems occur in the gaps between those tools’ interconnections.
“A project spans design software, construction administration, document systems, email and the field, and a firm’s real history spans all of it,” Cannone said.
There will not be layoffs at Lumi as a result of the acquisition, Cannone told Construction Dive. As part of the deal, Tudor Boiangiu, co-founder and CTO of Lumi AI, has joined Newforma as vice president of AI engineering, and the Lumi engineering team will continue to build from Toronto, per the announcement.
“We started Lumi to redefine how people interact with their own data: to make it as simple as asking a question,” Ibrahim Ashqar, co-founder and CEO of Lumi AI, said in the announcement. “Newforma brings rich project data and a large base of firms who depend on it. Combining that with Lumi’s engine unlocks far greater value for a much wider audience.”
Lumi’s acquisition is the latest in a line of acquisitions by other top construction technology firms that aim to use project data to improve tech products. Procore, for example, acquired vertical AI firm Datagrid in January, and it entered an agreement to acquire robotics and visual intelligence firm DroneDeploy in July.
Other recent, noteworthy contech M&A moves include Autodesk’s acquisition of Rhumbix in March and Trimble’s deal to acquire Document Crunch in April.
