Austin is booming. Construction is taking place across the metro as more people and businesses call Silicon Hills home. But what about the construction workers themselves? Subcontractors are often the last to get paid, typically paying for materials in advance then waiting 60 days to be paid for their work. According to a national subcontractor market report conducted by Austin fintech startup Billd, 46 percent of contractors say they struggle with cash flow due to long industry payment cycles. Billd aims to help.
Through Billd, contractors can finance materials from any supplier and pay Billd back within 120 days. This helps contractors pay for materials needed without dealing with cash flow slowdowns and more effectively grow their business.
To continue helping contractors, Austin-based Billd announced Tuesday it raised a $30 million Series B round.
“Supply chain finance in the construction industry is terribly broken and has been for decades,” Chris Doyle, CEO of Billd, said in a statement. “This funding round is a major milestone toward achieving our vision of solving insurmountable cash flow challenges for contractors.”
The latest funds will be used to grow Billd’s existing product, explore customer acquisition channels and partnerships, and launch new products. Two new products are currently in pilot and will likely launch to the public later this year, Doyle told Built In.
“We are 100 percent dedicated [to] the construction space,” he said. “We’re not looking to compete, necessarily, in the innovative construction technology piece but rather partner with these players to help solve a very different pain point. [We are] probably the only company that is solving this pain point from the bottom up ... directly at the subcontractor level.”
Funds will also be used to hire additional employees. Billd started the year with less than 30 employees and has since scaled to 65. Hiring initiatives will continue as the company aims to have 85 employees by the end of the year and 150 or 200 by the end of 2022, Doyle said. Hiring will take place across the company with a focus on the executive team such as a CTO and CFO. Billd currently has 18 open positions.
LL Funds led the Series B round with additional participation from RJT Credit and Ulysses Management. To date, Billd has raised $90 million in equity and debt financing, including a $60 million Series A round in 2019.
Construction and finance veterans Doyle and Jesse Weissburg launched Billd two-and-a-half years ago with $10 million in the bank. They quickly scaled to $1 million in monthly revenue in August of 2019 and the company has since exceeded $100 million in revenue, Doyle said.
