Victorian Government shines spotlight on construction tech

LaunchVic, an arm of the Victorian Government focused on growing the state’s startup ecosystem, will host some of the country’s largest construction companies and several Victorian construction tech startups in a two-day event aimed at highlighting how technology can help advance the $40 billion industry.

The Construction Tech Innovation Mission will be held in Melbourne from November 20 to 21, 2023.

According to a survey by Master Builders Victoria, the construction sector is the third largest employer in the state, generating about 358,900 jobs. Around 309,100 construction jobs are full-time, making the industry the largest full-time employer in the state.

The sector continues to make a significant economic contribution to the GSP, accounting for about 8.5 per cent of the state’s total goods and services produced in FY 2021/22, or $39.6 billion in gross value added. This makes it the fifth-largest sector in terms of economic output.

There were 127,370 firms in the Victorian building and construction industry at the end of June 2022, making construction the most significant industry by the number of firms, LaunchVic said.

LaunchVic Chair, Leigh Jasper, who sold ConstructionTech Aconex to US software giant Oracle for $1.6 billion in 2017, said a key challenge for the sector’s next growth phase was procurement, especially from the big players contracted to deliver major projects in Victoria.

"Navigating procurement as an early-stage company has been notoriously difficult in Victoria,” he said.

“More must be done to raise the profile of the incredible technology being developed in the state and ensure founders have the know-how to find and win tenders that could be the making of their business."

November’s Innovation Mission hopes to bridge the gap by connecting 14 emerging startups with leaders in the construction sector such as John Holland, Arup, Transurban and Aurecon.

Participating startups include Matrak, a global construction tracking network breaking the "Blame-Game" cycle synonymous with the construction industry when things go wrong.

The startup was founded in 2017 by Melbourne brothers, Shane and Brett Hodgkins, after experiencing the chaos of manually tracking and managing materials while working at their dad's facade installation company.

In 2021, Matrak closed out a $5.85M Series A round, which included Jasper and Aconex Co-Founder, Rob Phillpot, alongside many current and former executives from prestigious Australian construction companies.

Today, Matrak is used on over 140 projects across Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, Macau, China and Thailand.

Another startup attending the event is HammerTech, which aims to transform construction sites into safer and more productive workplaces. HammerTech provides a cloud-based, collaborative performance and productivity platform that speeds up administrative tasks, alerts personnel to issues, increases visibility and reduces manual tasks.

Over three million worker inductions have been completed through the HammerTech platform and more than 400 domestic and international construction contractors currently utilise the software as of November 2023, with HammerTech supporting $100 billion in annual construction volume across more than 15,000 projects since its inception, the company claims.

In July 2023, HammerTech announced that it plans to expand its global footprint by setting up offices in the UK and Ireland.

Other startups confirmed to participate in the Innovation Mission include Fologram, Varicon, Red Marble, Place Intelligence and more.