When you think about platforms in the construction industry, chances are the concrete slabs designed to support steel beams and tall pillars will come first to your mind. Munich-based startup Comstruct wants to design a different kind of platform for the construction industry — a software platform.At its core, Comstruct is a procurement platform for construction materials. For large-scale projects, processing materials orders can take a lot of time, as materials providers still print out delivery notes and invoices. Orders are often placed over the phone, and it can be difficult to reconcile invoices and create comprehensive data reports.“Today, the procurement process of materials in construction is very analog. You could place a phone call to order 10 cubic meters next Thursday. Then you get a physical delivery note on the site that is then typed out into an Excel sheet,” Comstruct co-founder and CEO, Henric Meinhardt, told TechCrunch

Prefab further solidifies Kojo as an end-to-end platform for construction materials managementSAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Kojo , the construction industry's leading materials and inventory management platform, announced today the launch of Kojo Prefab (prefabrication).Kojo Prefab helps contractors by connecting their valuable prefab shop to the rest of their business so that they can get the most out of their prefab investment.Today, over 60% of trade contractors already incorporate some form of prefabrication into their building processes. Kojo Prefab addresses the rising demand and underscores contractors' needs for improved productivity, quality control, safety performance, and cost predictability associated with prefabrication. Field teams can now easily order prefab assemblies from the prefab shop and track the status on Kojo's mobile app."As our prefab shop grew, we turned sharpie drawings into digital PDFs, but no one was using them, and they were impossible to maintain," said Danny Blankenship, a Prefab Manager at United Electric. "Kojo's Prefab not only digitizes, but the goal is for our teams to use Kojo to communicate what prefab materials are available, create POs and track deliveries - just like ordering a pizza.""Prefab is at the top of contractors' minds as they struggle with siloed teams and analog processes," said Maria Davidson, CEO and founder of Kojo. "They're increasing investments in prefabrication shops because they see the efficiency, quality control and long-term savings that come with building offsite instead of on job sites