Monumental’s bricklaying robots completed their first 15-m facade for an office and warehouse building in 2023. | Source: Monumental
Monumental, a construction robotics startup, this week announced that it has raised $25 million in funding. The company said its goal is to solve the labor, cost, and sustainability problems currently afflicting the global construction industry.
Founded in 2021, Monumental builds small, electric, and agile autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs). These robots move freely around the rough terrain of building sites to help contractors address labor shortages and rising costs. The Amsterdam-based startup said its initial focus is on bricklaying.
“The construction industry is one of the largest and most important in the world, yet it’s held back by global labor shortages and rising supply chain costs,” said Salar al Khafaji, co-founder and CEO of Monumental, in a release. “At Monumental, we’re working to help the industry meet these challenges.”
“Our agile, intelligent, and adaptable robots and software blend human expertise with robotic efficiency in a way that the industry has never seen before,” he added. “They will revolutionize not just how buildings are constructed, but [also] transform the economics of the construction industry itself. We’re delighted to have this stellar team of investors joining us on this mission.”
Following pilot test cases in the Netherlands, Monumental completed its first large-scale, 15-m (49.2-ft.) facade for an office and warehouse building in 2023. Since then, it has deployed its robots on several other projects, including social housing projects. The company currently has partnerships with multiple top 25 general contractors.
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The construction industry is primed for robotic disruption
The U.K. alone is short an estimated 75,000 bricklayers needed to build the 300,000 houses required annually to keep up with housing needs. A recent study estimated that construction robots could increase productivity by 50% to 60%, with the global construction market on track to reach $15.5 trillion by 2030, said Monumental.
The company explained that its robots are outfitted with advanced sensors, computer vision, and small cranes. Monumental said each of its robots can place bricks and mortar in industrial and residential walls with a level of precision, accuracy, and efficiency that is comparable with human brick layers.
Atrium, Monumental’s AI-powered software, operates each robot. The robots are small enough to go anywhere a human can, including into tight corners, through doorways, or in a van.
According to Monumental, many existing construction robots have either additional expenses, are built to work off-site, are too large to feasibly work alongside humans, or focus on prefab, modular projects. This can make them difficult to deploy. The company claimed that its electric robots offer a sustainable and immediate solution to keep pace with global demands.
Contractors can hire Monumental as a subcontractor to bring in its robots to work as bricklayers autonomously, across the site, and alongside humans. This removes the financial risk to contractors involved in purchasing and operating the machines while also reducing the technical risk of having to learn and validate, the startup said.
Monumental prepares to scale across Europe
Monumental said it plans to use its recent funding to grow its team of hardware and software engineers. It also hopes to scale the number of robots it can deploy on sites across Europe and to increase the types of blocks and tasks its robots can manage.
Plural, an early-stage investment fund launched in 2022, and Hummingbird, a global, early-stage fund that has been investing for over 10 years, led the round. Northzone, Fundamental, and NP-Hard Ventures also participated, along with some high-profile angel investors.
“Monumental’s approach is the perfect coming together of ambition and expertise, the rising power and impact of AI, and the shrinking cost and size of cutting-edge hardware to address an industry that’s at a breaking point,” said Sten Tamkivi, a partner at Plural. “Something significant has to happen if we’re to meet the housing demands of millions and reduce the economic and environmental burden of the built world, and Monumental is going to be something significant.”
“Europe’s infrastructure has been suffering from the shortage of skilled laborers for years, and we’re excited to support Monumental and its innovative approach to solving this challenge,” added Firat Ileri, a partner at Hummingbird. “Monumental’s robots won’t just improve efficiencies on building sites, but the technology [also] has the potential to enhance safety, optimize workflows, and attract more talent into the field who are excited to learn new skills. We’re confident Monumental will deliver long-term benefits for the industry and society as a whole.”
Other bricklaying robots include Hadrian X from FBR Ltd. and SAM 2 from Construction Robotics.
Hi have reviewed many brick robot concepts over the years and the one that stands out is the FBR truck mounted robots which handle a variety of bricks and blocks, but the best feature is the deployment to residential blocks with minimal set up without the need for semi trailers, riggers, scaffolders and labourers which adds to the cost and disruption to surrounding homes.
The 3d printing and scaffold track based bots have their place but when it comes to flexibility i think FBR have a winner. Iam sure build times will get even quicker when they deploy several of these machines to build a single and multi level structures in unison
Like i said its hard to beat a machine that can drivie up to your project ready to go
Regards
Captain Davo