Balfour Beatty has invested £10m in a venture capital fund to gain early access to the robotics and AI innovations the fund is backing.
The contractor has invested in venture capital firm Pi Labs’ Fund IV – the first time it has invested in an accelerator fund. PI Labs wants the fund to reach £100m and will invest in up to 50 early-stage construction technology startups across robotics and AI, aiming to scale globally from the UK, Europe and North America.
Fund IV has already secured investments from Dar Ventures (the VC arm of international design consultancy Sidara) and Dubai-based developer Ellington Properties. Pi Labs was founded in 2015 and has since made more than 100 investments in 15 countries. Startups that have already benefited from Pi Labs’ investment include Qflow and SymTerra.
Pi Labs has already invested in six firms via Fund IV. Five of those will be demonstrating their technology in London on 9 July. They are:
- AutoSitu: coordinated AI agents that reduce planning approval timelines by up to 90% for developers and architects.
- Bite: AI infrastructure for structural engineering teams, automating design workflows and dramatically increasing productivity.
- Movable: voice AI that gives organisations real-time visibility into frontline operations by capturing insights directly from deskless workers.
- Unbane: voice AI for construction teams, replacing manual administration with audit-ready records generated through natural conversation.
- Veridue: an AI platform built for energy infrastructure deals, delivering instant red flags across diligence so teams can find better assets, move faster and close with confidence.
Interested parties can request to attend the event or watch it online.
Testing on site
According to Pi Labs, Balfour Beatty “will open its construction sites as a living sandbox for emerging technology, putting our founders’ work on real projects, at national scale, long before the rest of the market catches up”. Balfour Beatty expects such testing on site to start in October.
Not only will Balfour Beatty get early access to the innovations, but it will also have the opportunity to invest in the startups alongside Pi Labs throughout Fund IV’s life.
Balfour Beatty group chief executive Philip Hoare said: “Productivity is one of the defining challenges – and greatest opportunities – facing our industry. To deliver the scale and complexity of infrastructure our customers and communities need, we have to keep finding better ways to work.
“Our investment in Pi Labs will give us earlier access to entrepreneurs and technologies that could improve delivery, build capability and capacity, and create long-term value. This is a strategic investment in practical innovation, focused on the partnerships and insight our key markets need for the years ahead.”
Pi Labs founder and managing partner, Faisal Butt, said: “Balfour Beatty’s commitment reflects a shared belief that technology and AI can improve how the built environment is designed, delivered, maintained and operated. Our ambition is to accelerate innovation across the sector and back the entrepreneurs working on some of its biggest challenges – from productivity and performance to sustainability and resilience.
“With Balfour Beatty’s support, we can help connect promising technologies with the infrastructure projects and industry expertise needed to test, scale and apply them in the real world.”
