An Amsterdam-based startup has secured $25 million in funding in its mission to transform the construction industry, led by robots laying bricks!
Monumental is working to blend human knowledge with the capability of artificial intelligence to deliver solutions to build walls for house building and other construction projects.
It is not a new concept, although it may come as news to many, with the thought of a robot squad being deployed on sites representing a challenge as much as new opportunities.
Data entry, factory work, cashier roles, and even tax driving are known to be in the firing line when it comes to robots taking over the workplace. Still, you can add construction to the list of industries gaining exposure to AI and new solutions for existing capacity. Hadrian X is already known to be a company exploring this idea in the US with its use of masonry blocks to build structures.
A Tech Crunch report indicates construction is an industry valued at around $2 trillion in the United States alone.
It was described as a field more than ripe for automation-fuelled disruption, given the pitfalls of strenuous, labor-intensive, and occasionally dangerous manual work. It is these challenges that industrial robots are designed to overcome, but can it really work?
Significant support and potential
Monumental was founded in 2021 by Salar al Khafaji (CEO) and Sebastiaan Visser (CTO). Its small, electric, agile, autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) move freely around the rough terrain of building sites to help contractors address labor shortages and rising costs, with an initial focus on bricklaying.
“At Monumental, we’re working to help the industry meet these challenges,” stated al Khafaji.
“Our agile, intelligent, and adaptable robots and software blend human expertise with robotic efficiency in a way that the industry has never seen before.”
The funding round has been secured thanks to the headline backing of Plural and Hummingbird, with Northzone, Foundamental, and NP-Hard Ventures as supplementary investors.
The finance will enable further hires, an increase in manufacturing, and progress in the type of bricks that the robots can handle to hone their AI-powered craft further.
Image: Rodolfo Quiros/Pexels.
