Nine Four Insights

Why We Invested: Built Technologies

We’re thrilled to announce our newest follow-on investment in Built Technologies’ $125M Series D that was led by TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) and included participation from Brookfield Technology Partners, 9Yards Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, and HighSage Ventures. Nine Four Ventures cannot be more excited to continue supporting Chase and Andrew on their mission to build the category defining finance platform transforming the construction industry.

Nine Four Partner Paul La Londe has known Built cofounders Chase Gilbert and Andrew Sohr since the early days in 2015. At the time, Paul was at SV Angel and the Built team was starting to commercialize their product and ramp up their first customers. Chase and Andrew explained the terrible inefficiencies of the construction lending industry that they experienced earlier in their careers, as well as their articulate roadmap for how technology could positively impact the market. This struck a chord. Paul grew up in a family of real estate entrepreneurs, and was familiar with the problem Chase and Andrew were solving. He knew they were on to something. After graduating from business school and joining Nine Four, Paul and the team subsequently took a deep-dive into construction finance that led us to focus squarely on Built, and how we could support Chase, Andrew, and the Built team.

What we uncovered through research, interviews, and exploration, is a market that we believed represented a greenfield opportunity. Trillions of dollars flow through the global construction ecosystem from lender to vendor every year, however, those fund flows are managed in offline, bespoke environments that rely on pen, paper, Excel, email, phone and fax. This results in a generally accepted paradigm full of long repayment cycles, often longer than 60-90-120 days, and challenging cash flow situations that create a misalignment of incentives and result in slow-moving projects.

What if we lived in a world where this wasn’t a problem, and where payments in the construction industry flowed seamlessly across a vertical payment chain, solving many of the cash flow management challenges the industry faces? We believe Built Technologies is building the solution. Built’s platform consists of a single intelligent payment rail between lenders, developers, general contractors, sub-contractors, and suppliers that moves money seamlessly, in a secure and compliant way, that helps stakeholders build new assets faster. The world, not just the construction industry, needs this!

Until this point, Built has been patiently building the leading construction finance platform and laying the groundwork for an exciting product roadmap that expands the solutions banking partners and those in the construction industry need and use. The aspiration is for contractors to pay counterparties, finance purchases, and insure projects digitally and instantly at the click of a button through Built. By embedding these additional products and services within the incredible software foundation they’ve already built (no pun intended!) we believe Built will modernize money movement and improve financial outcomes in construction. It’s a monumental challenge that Built and the company are tackling in an equally impressive way.

This is why we’re incredibly excited to proudly support them in their quest to revolutionize the way payments are sent and received across the construction industry. Thank you Chase, Andrew, and the entire Built team for allowing Nine Four Ventures to continue supporting you in your mission.

If you’re a lender, developer or general contractor and interested in learning more or a demo, please reach out. And if you’re interested in helping drive the construction finance revolution, Built is hiring!

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