NYC Construction Startups & Technology
New York's construction startups — companies founded here building software, robotics, and hardware for the construction and real estate industry — distinct from the DOB permit-holding contractors elsewhere in Companies. Several of these were later acquired or shut down; that's stated plainly per entry rather than glossed over.
No public dataset of "construction startups" exists, so each company's NYC founding/HQ claim is checked against a real source — the company's own site, a funding/acquisition report, or a directory like Built In NYC — before being listed. Ranked by founding year, oldest first, not funding or revenue, which isn't consistently disclosed for private companies.
- NYC Startups Tracked
- 12
- Still Independent
- 7
- Acquired or Shut Down
- 5
NYC-Founded Startups
What They Build
- Valuation & Market Data3
- Project Management2
- Building Operations & Energy2
- Robotics & Fabrication1
- Workforce & Payroll1
- Leasing & Asset Management1
- Urban Planning1
- Venture Capital1
NYC startups tracked
Showing 12 of 12
- 1EnertivBuilding Operations & EnergyActive
IoT sensor and software platform for predictive maintenance and energy/submetering analytics in commercial buildings.
Founded 2011 by Pavel Khodorkovskiy & Connell McGill
Active — ongoing product and partnership activity
- 2VTSLeasing & Asset ManagementActive
Leasing and asset-management software giving commercial landlords and brokers real-time visibility into deal pipelines and portfolio performance.
Founded 2012 by Nick Romito & Ryan Masiello
Active, independent, NYC headquartered
- 3Honest BuildingsProject ManagementAcquired / Closed
Cloud-based capital project management software for real estate owners and developers to track budgets, RFPs, and vendor performance.
Founded 2012 by Riggs Kubiak
Acquired by Procore Technologies, July 2019 — now part of Procore Owner tools
- 4CompStakValuation & Market DataActive
Crowdsourced commercial real estate data platform — lease and sale comparables, loan data, and property analytics, built by having brokers and analysts contribute data in exchange for access.
Founded 2012 by Michael Mandel & Vadim Belobrovka
Active, independent — NYC headquartered, with additional offices in LA, Chicago, Atlanta, and Belgrade
- 5MetaPropVenture CapitalActive
Venture capital firm and accelerator investing exclusively in proptech and real-estate/construction technology; runs an ongoing accelerator program at Columbia University.
Founded 2015 by Zach Aarons & Aaron Block
Active — closed a $100M third fund
- 6Sidewalk LabsUrban PlanningAcquired / Closed
Urban planning and infrastructure subsidiary of Google/Alphabet — worked on technology for urban design, sustainable construction, and infrastructure, most prominently the Sidewalk Toronto smart-neighborhood project.
Founded June 2015 by Daniel L. Doctoroff, former NYC Deputy Mayor for Economic Development
Wound down and folded into Google, December 2021, after its flagship Toronto project was abandoned in 2020
- 7ToggleRobotics & FabricationActive
Robotics and automation startup building an end-to-end digital rebar pre-assembly system — design software plus robotic fabrication — for reinforced-concrete construction.
Founded 2016, Brooklyn
Active, independent — raised a Series A and operates a rebar pre-assembly facility
- 8Skyline AIValuation & Market DataAcquired / Closed
AI-driven investment and valuation analytics platform for commercial real estate.
Founded 2017 by Guy Zipori and others
Acquired by JLL, November 2021 — absorbed into JLL’s AI capabilities
- 9Blueprint PowerBuilding Operations & EnergyAcquired / Closed
Software platform turning commercial buildings into grid-connected "virtual power plants," managing on-site energy assets and battery storage.
Founded 2018
Acquired by bp, October 2021 — now bp’s building-energy tech unit
- 10TraydWorkforce & PayrollActive
Payroll, HR, and compliance platform built specifically for specialty trade subcontractors — automates time tracking and payroll to enable same-day/early wage access for field workers.
Founded 2021 by Anna Berger & Cara Kessler
Active — raised a $10M Series A (March 2026, led by White Star Capital) on top of Y Combinator and Suffolk Technologies backing
- 11Bowery ValuationValuation & Market DataActive
Tech-enabled commercial real estate appraisal firm using a proprietary platform and mobile field-inspection app.
NYC headquartered, Crosby Street
Active, independent
- 12FieldLensProject ManagementAcquired / Closed
Mobile field-coordination app for construction teams — photos, punch lists, and RFIs tied directly to project plans.
NYC-founded
Acquired by WeWork (2017), shut down (2020), then acquired and relaunched by RedTeam as "Fieldlens by RedTeam" (Dec. 2020)
AI in Construction
Companies whose core product is AI or computer vision applied directly to a jobsite or a takeoff — reading camera footage, LiDAR scans, or drawings and turning it into progress, cost, or quantity data automatically. None are NYC-founded; they're listed here because they're genuinely in active use on real projects, not vaporware.
- OpenSpaceJobsite Documentation
360° cameras plus computer vision to automatically capture and organize a visual record of a jobsite, so any point on a floor plan can be checked against real photo history without manual tagging.
OpenSpace, founded 2017 by Jeevan Kalanithi & Michael Fleischman, San Francisco, CA
- BuildotsProgress Tracking
Hardhat-mounted 360° cameras and computer vision that automatically compare actual jobsite progress against the schedule and BIM model, flagging what’s behind before it becomes a bigger delay.
Buildots, founded 2018, Tel Aviv, Israel
- DoxelProgress & Cost Tracking
AI, LiDAR, and computer vision that track construction progress against budget and schedule in near real time, aimed at catching cost and productivity overruns while they’re still fixable.
Doxel, founded 2016, Redwood City, CA
- Togal.AIEstimating & Takeoff
AI-powered takeoff software that reads architectural drawings directly and automatically detects, measures, and labels spaces and features — work that traditionally takes an estimator hours per drawing set.
Togal.AI, founded 2019 by Patrick Murphy, Miami, FL
Systems the Industry Runs On
Distinct from the NYC-founded startups above — these are the widely-used, mostly non-NYC-founded systems that GCs, developers, and agencies actually run day to day: project management and design coordination, finding new leads, estimating a bid, running ERP/accounting, and internal reporting. Deciding between them? See the Tech Stack Guide for real pricing, deployment, and migration details by category.
- ProcoreProject & Financial Management
The dominant construction project-management platform — RFIs, submittals, budgets, and field coordination in one system. Publicly traded (NYSE: PCOR). Acquired NYC-founded Honest Buildings in 2019, now folded into Procore Owner tools.
Procore Technologies, founded 2002, Carpinteria, CA
- Autodesk Forma (formerly Autodesk Construction Cloud)BIM & Design Coordination
Autodesk's construction cloud — BIM 360 and PlanGrid's successor — for model coordination, clash detection, and field-to-design feedback. Renamed from "Autodesk Construction Cloud" to "Autodesk Forma" in March 2026, unifying it with Autodesk's design-side cloud tools.
Autodesk, founded 1982, San Francisco, CA
- Microsoft Power BIData & Reporting
Not construction-specific, but the most common tool developers, GCs, and agencies reach for to build internal dashboards on top of their own project, cost, and permit data — the same kind of reporting this site does publicly with NYC's open data.
Microsoft, Power BI launched 2015, Redmond, WA
- Dodge Construction NetworkProject Leads & Market Intelligence
Commercial construction project data, leads, and market forecasting — tracks projects from pre-planning through permit and construction start. Originally F.W. Dodge (founded 1891); the U.S. Census Bureau has used it as an official construction data source for over 55 years.
Dodge Construction Network, Bedford, MA
- ProEstEstimating & Bid Management
Cloud-based cost estimating, digital takeoffs, and bid-day analysis in one system. Now owned by Autodesk, sold alongside Autodesk Construction Cloud — distinct from Togal.AI above, which does AI-automated takeoff rather than estimator-driven estimating.
ProEst (Autodesk), San Diego, CA
- FOUNDATIONConstruction ERP & Accounting
Job costing, certified/union payroll, AP/AR, and general ledger built specifically for contractors, on Microsoft SQL Server. Aimed at smaller labor-intensive contractors (roughly 10–1,500 employees) rather than large enterprise GCs.
Foundation Software, founded 1985, Strongsville, OH
- Trimble Viewpoint VistaConstruction ERP & Accounting
Enterprise construction ERP — accounting, job costing, payroll, HR, and equipment/service management on one platform, built on Microsoft Azure. The scale tier above FOUNDATION: large, multi-entity contractors rather than small/mid-size shops.
Trimble (Viewpoint), Portland, OR
- BuildingConnectedBid Management & Preconstruction
The dominant bid-management network connecting GCs to subcontractors — invitation-to-bid, bid leveling, and a searchable subcontractor directory. Acquired by Autodesk in 2018 and now bundled with Autodesk Construction Cloud/Forma.
BuildingConnected (Autodesk), founded 2012, San Francisco, CA