Meirav Oren CEO Versatile (Photo: Gil Tanenbaum)
Versatile is an Israeli construction technology startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) to optimize construction processes. Versatile has secured $80 million in Series B funding. Insight Partners led the round, joined by Tiger Global. The investment will support the company’s rapid growth and strengthen its data-driven capabilities. It will also help expand Versatile’s service to insurers and across the construction value chain.
Versatile first made its mark in 2016 when the company was a finalist in the first Mass Challenge ever held in Israel. That year, 48 companies competed in the accelerator program and five won awards, including Versatile.
CraneView, Versatile’s leading product, collects novel data on both progress and process; what got built–and how it got built–and analyzes thousands of these data points to deliver transformational insights on jobsite performance to streamline decision-making. Mounted under the hook of any crane, it offers production data on any jobsite–including information on materials, redundancies, construction progress and crane utilization. Since its 2019 launch, CraneView has been adopted by over 40% of the leading general contractors in North America.
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“Today’s announcement is a meaningful milestone for the construction industry, not just Versatile,” said Meirav Oren, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Versatile. “It affirms our industry is innovative, forward-thinking, and worthy of the world’s leading technology investments. This funding enables us to do more for the construction professionals we proudly serve, creating opportunities for them to measure, improve and win while enhancing a culture of safety.”
Meirav Oren once spoke with Jewish Business News about her company. “If you ask any construction manager what it will take to build faster and more efficiently he will say that it’s another crane,” she said. “But this is a mistake. They all believe that their cranes are being utilized at 80 or 100 percent efficiency. But is really more like 30 to 50 percent. Bottlenecks are always a problem.”
Meirav Oren and Dan Shelly (Photo: Gil Tanenbaum)
Meirav cannot stand to see piles of materials like cement and building girders lying around a construction site since she knows that they could have already been put into place.
Meirav Oren also had a few things to say about what it is like for a woman entrepreneur to try and make it in the world of high tech.
“I see being a woman in this male dominated industry as a source for pride, a challenge to be met and as a real opportunity to make an impact.”
“We need more female entrepreneurs and the only way this will happen is if we give the right example to the next generation while inspiring others in our generation to join as they see more success stories and realize they can do this too!”
