Balfour Beatty invests £10m in VC to gain early access to innovations

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:

Interested parties can request to attend the event or watch it online.

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.”