Built Robotics drills up another $64 million for its self-driving diggers

Robotic construction workers are making their way onto site with construction autonomy firm Built Robotics securing another $64 million in Series C funding.

The new investment, led by Tiger Global, sees the total amount of funding rise to $112 million.

Built’s robots claim to turn any trench digging excavator into a self-driving piece of construction equipment. The ‘Exosystem,’ as it’s called, can be installed and calibrated on an excavator in less than a day, according to the San Francisco-based robotics firm, and are available to be rented for an hourly fee. Alternatively, contractors can hire pre-upgraded excavators from Built directly.

Built claims that the Exosystem autonomous software, depending on usage, can achieve cost savings of 20% or better over traditional methods. Founder Noah Ready-Campbell adds that automation is becoming necessary in many construction projects due to labour shortages.

Funder Griffin Schroeder – a partner at Tiger Global added that autonomous construction technology was set to transform the construction of solar farms, oil and gas projects “and other large and critical infrastructure projects around the world”.

The autonomous robots are already working away with the rental fleet fully booked into 2023, “and orders keep coming in,” Ready-Campbell said.

“The Series C will give us the capital we need to ramp production and get our robots into the hands of more contractors. And autonomous trenching is just the first step – customers are already asking for backfill, compaction, material handling, loading trucks and more,” he added.

Existing investors NEA, Founders Fund, Fifth Wall and Building Ventures also participated in the Series C funding round.