Construction tech startup Agora raises $33M in Series B

After a year of big revenue and staff growth, construction tech startup Agora is getting a big influx of cash in a Series B funding round.

The $33 million round was led by Tiger Global and included 8VC, DST, Tishman Speyer, LeFrak, Jerry Yang, Kevin Hartz and Michael Ovitz, TechCrunch reported.

The startup helps clients to speed processing orders for construction materials and to manage those materials. With the pandemic sending construction material markets into a tizzy, Agora capitalized, growing revenue around eightfold during the past year. The company has expanded to 30 states and tripled its staff over that time.

Read more

New York

Troubled construction startup Katerra will shut down: report

Agora, led by CEO Maria Rioumine, plans on using its new funding to hire more staff and invest more in research and development.

Using the Agora platform, trade contractors are able to order and track building materials and communicate with interested parties across the supply chain. The platform also eliminates the need for many manual data entry processes.

Construction management, little-changed for decades, has long been seen as ripe for streamlining and innovation.

In November, Tishman Speyer and Suffolk Construction led a $7 million Series A for Agora, which brought the company’s funding to $11 million at the time. Agora was founded in 2018 by Rioumine — a former investment banker — and Ryan Gibson.

[TechCrunch] — Holden Walter-Warner