MARCH 14 2022

Published in the Australian Financial Review

‍

The co-founder and chief executive of construction technology software start-up Mastt has earmarked expansion in the US and MiddleEast as top priorities, as a booming construction sector and rapid revenue growth has led investors – including the founders of big money local success story Aconex – to pour almost $10 million into the company.

The $9.5 million funding round comes a year after it closed a $2.2 million funding round. The latest was led by venture capital firm OIF (Our Innovation Fund) Ventures, with money also from Artesian, Significant Early Venture Capital, Investible and Gravel Road Ventures, and the fund of Aconex co-founders Rob Phillpot andLeigh Jasper.

The co-founder of Tiger Global-backed construction worker management platform Assignar, Sean McCreanor, also invested along with Assignar’s chief revenue officer Chris Peterson and Mastt’s chief technology officer David Jablonski.

Aconex is a beacon of success for other Australian software firms targeting the construction and property sector, after it was acquired by US tech giant Oracle for $1.6 billion in late 2017.

Mastt chief executive Doug Vincent said he spent time with Mr Phillpot and Mr Jasper every month and looked to wear the “next Aconex” label with honour.

“It’s big shoes to fill, but we believe that we will inevitably do it,” Mr Vincent said.

“Construction in Australia is booming and will be very strong for the next decade. Even if no new projects were announced for years, local construction firms will be chock-a-block from here.

“In the last 12 months, we’ve achieved four-fold monthly recurring revenue growth and grown head count to over 40 team members globally, servicing over $25 billion worth of projects.”

Mastt’s software is used by companies such as WSP Global, GHD, AECOM, Jacobs Engineering, RPS Group and Aurecon to give capital project owners and managers a real-time overview across projects, to help them analyse their work and avoid cost blowouts across their portfolios.

It has also sold its software subscriptions to federal government organisations such as the Australian Army and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Its sales pitch to potential clients is that its algorithms do the work that would previously have involved staff collating thousands of documents and spreadsheets to keep track of projects.

Mr Vincent said growth in the past year had been fuelled by existing client net revenue growth, as well as about 20 new contract wins across a variety of sectors. He said growth in to the US and Middle East had occurred remotely because of pandemic travel restrictions, but that physical expansion would now be a priority.

“In the US and Middle East we have secured big name multinational clients without even having an international phone number, let alone a dedicated sales force. It was all word-of-mouth and inbound and product-led growth,” he said.

“We’re bullish on our growth overseas and are actively recruiting to grow the US and Middle East offices, which will take us to 70 staff by mid-2022 ... Although the US and Middle East are our key markets for direct sales over the next 18 months, we have plans to penetrate Europe and other regions via product-led growth channels later in 2022 and into 2023.”

Aside from its international expansion, the new funding will also be invested in product research and development to expand its services, and further team and executive hiring. Mr Vincent said despite growing revenue substantially month-on-month, Mastt was planning a Series B funding round within the next 18 months.

“We’ve courted interest from US investors, and we are confident that some may play a role in our next round,” he said.

”[Compared to a year ago]raising $9.5 million was easier as we have demonstrated product/market fit and an amazing customer base. This time we had too much interest – the round was heavily oversubscribed. It felt odd to say no to VCs who were a great match, but we just couldn’t fit them in.“

OIF partner David Shein, who built Australia’s first“unicorn” tech company ComTech Communications, said Mr Vincent and his Mastt co-founders Raman Nambiar and Jamie Cerexhe had proven to be “exceptionally focused” on solving major decision-making issues for owners and managers in the capital works industry.

“Construction is one of the least tech-enabled industries. As both the construction and tech industries grow we are very excited about their opportunity to increase technology take-up in the market,” Mr Shein said.

“Mastt is a great example of market leading, industry standard Australian technology leading the world, and it’s a privilege to partner with them on this journey.”