Mercator AI Secures $1M CAD of funding in an oversubscribed pre-seed round
Calgary-based tech startup disrupting the construction industry with unique AI that reveals hidden opportunities for business developers.
Calgary, Alta; June 27, 2022 — The construction tech industry is booming… in the field that is. In the office, however, excel spreadsheets dominate, relationships are still sealed with a handshake, and finding new business is a mix of grinding out manual research and dead end cold calls. Developing new business with new customers is hard, but it doesn’t have to be.
Mercator AI, co-founded by Chloe Smith, a former head of innovation and accomplished data strategist, and Hogan Lee, a former vp of product and technology, is a faster way for construction companies to find and qualify new business opportunities.
“Growing up in a construction family, I’ve watched business development practices stagnate over the years despite massive technological advancements”, says Smith. “We’re still wining-and-dining for nuggets of information and scouring government records for a single piece of the puzzle. It’s exhausting. And it’s not like we don’t know there’s better data out there. There’s just not enough time in the day to chase it all down, so we end up leaving money on the table.”
Mercator changes this. They mine and analyze millions of data points across the construction process to identify indicators that signal early project development. Through partnerships with government entities, private data providers, and their own proprietary methods, they can track the activity on those projects through to completion. This enables customers to access early project opportunities, who’s involved, and historical trends to inform productive conversations.
Mercator launched its MVP platform earlier this year with the goal of helping general contractors get involved with qualified opportunities earlier in the project lifecycle. “We’ve used bidding tools in the past,” said Andrew Lobas, Partner at Build IT and early adopter of Mercator AI. “But the leads were often too late or the data was too stale to be useful. What I like about Mercator is that every opportunity they surface up to us is already qualified — there’s already work underway — and as a result, we’ve connected with stakeholders we’d never met before.”
Strong initial traction in an industry ripe for disruption helped Mercator capture the attention of tech insiders Thiago Da Costa, CEO of Toric and FreshFounders’ Stephany Lapierre, CEO of Tealbook.
“There are a handful of big competitors in this space that haven’t seen real competition since the 80s,” shares Da Costa. “When I was introduced to Mercator, I thought ‘here’s a solution to a problem that has been entirely overlooked and an opportunity to really put the pressure on the existing institutions.’”
Mercator’s initial interest and traction brought along additional notable investments from Mallorie Brodie, CEO of Bridgit; Kerry Liu, Co-founder of Rubikloud; Mistral; and Critical Mass Chair, Dianne Wilkins.
The round was officially led by StandUp Ventures, a firm dedicated to supporting fearless founding teams that are changing the face of antiquated industries. StandUp Ventures is also an investor in Bridgit and Tealbook, which made Mercator AI an easy addition to the portfolio. The51 a Financial FeministTM platform and venture capital firm, also joined the round to close out the oversubscription.
“Mercator is digitizing and bringing intelligence to historically analog and manual aspects of the construction industry which we believe represents a massive (and growing) opportunity,'' said Michelle McBane, Managing Director for StandUp Ventures. “Chloe and Hogan bring a rare mix of grit, industry insight, and technical competence as a founding team and we’re thrilled to be partnering with them on Mercator’s journey.”
“Mercator’s founding team is incredibly focused and driven and they have surrounded themselves with a strong group of investors with significant sector and tech expertise,” shares Judy Fairburn, The51 Co-founder and Co-CEO. “The51 is proud to be among those investing in Mercator. We were particularly impressed with Mercator’s priority to gather feedback from customers while iterating their technology product. We aren’t alone in this based on the construction sector firms they are starting to sign on for paid pilots.”
“It was important that we surround ourselves with a diverse group of investors that could guide us in the many facets of our business,” explains Smith. “As a Data-as-a-Service ConTech company, not only are we faced with the challenges of a tech company, but also those of a data company and a company in the construction sector. We are so grateful to have the support of those who have come before us, and fantastic partners who have extensive experience shepherding successful data companies.”
Funding from this round will allow Mercator to develop key markets across Canada and the US, as well as increase platform accessibility across diverse audience groups including real estate and manufacturing.
For more information on Mercator AI, please visit mercator.ai.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Chloe Smith
CEO, Co-founder
403.861.8076
About Mercator
Mercator AI is a real-time construction intelligence platform enabling business developers across construction, real estate, and manufacturing to find and qualify new opportunities faster. By mining and analyzing millions of data points across commercial and industrial projects, Mercator is able to identify signals of early construction activity, reveal who’s involved, and tie this active project information back to rich company profiles. Our mission is to give business developers more time to do what they do best, and support them with the insights they need to have informed and productive conversations.
About StandUp Ventures
StandUp Ventures is a seed stage venture capital fund that invest in companies that are led or co-led by women. Women led companies think outside the box, recruit great talent, serve bigger untapped markets and we believe generate outsized returns. We are currently investing out of our second fund and are excited to be backing founding teams from across Canada.
About The51
The51 is a Financial Feminist™ platform where current and aspiring investors (particularly women and gender-diverse individuals), come together to democratize access to capital for women and gender-diverse founders. By amplifying the impact of capital and commercialisation, The51 builds mutual wealth and social/environmental impact, shares knowledge and experiences and practices intersectional feminism through financial action. Our community of influential feminist investors, innovators, and consumers are building the Financial Feminist™ economy.