When we were children we all imagined that in the year 2020 all of the cities would be “futuristic”. In 2019, the last year of the 2010s, we managed to give a strong impetus to the development of the construction industry.
We don’t know if we have managed to make the cities look like the ones that we imagined when we were younger, but nonetheless, we know that we are closer than ever to building more digitized, sustainable and efficient cities.
What did CEMEX Ventures get up to in 2019?
We focused our efforts on four solutions which have been added to the portfolio of innovative construction companies:
- LINKX, a specialized software for optimizing goods delivery.
- Energy Vault, an innovative proposal for energy storage.
- GoFor, a company which provides the delivery of materials to job sites and which specializes in last mile deliveries.
- X3 Builders, a vertically integrated contractor that combines architectonic design, materials contracting and construction services, using its own software.
The greatest challenge for construction startups: Construction Startup Competition 2019
This year, for the third year running, we invited startups and entrepreneurs which offer innovative solutions in the construction sector to take part in our challenge. Twice as many startups participated in the Construction Startup Competition 2019 than in the 2018 edition, and the countries with the most active participation were Mexico, the United States, Colombia, Spain and the UK.
At the end of the event, ten startups were declared the winners. These startups all offered solutions for one or more of CEMEX Ventures’ operational focal points: project and works management, project or material design, and engineering and innovative methods, amongst others.
A review of our most significant achievements in 2019
- Through our collaboration agreement with Glodon, a provider of digital platform services, and Interdream, a company dedicated to the digitization of the construction and decoration industries, we managed to enter the Chinese market, and we set up our first office in the East.
- Builtworlds, included us on their list of the most relevant investors in the construction ecosystem: Venture Investors 50 List
- We Speak Construction. We pioneered these workshops as a place to exchange ideas on the industry’s problems and needs. Industry players from the construction sector participated: companies, entrepreneurs and experts in innovation, etc.
- Top 50 ConTech Startups 2019. In conjunction with Boston Consulting Group and Tracxn, we released our list of the 50 most promising startups to lead the Contech ecosystem. When drawing up this list we considered three main criteria: project design and engineering, project and jobsite management, and sustainable and innovative materials and construction methods.
But this is just the start for us, our goal in 2020 is to continue to build on these figures and further boost the digital transformation of the construction industry. Our objective is to move closer to creating those so-called “futuristic” cities, while also providing solutions to the challenges of the present.
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