• The Series A round is led by Climate Tech VC Systemiq Capital and includes Bridge Investment Group and Grosvenor, amongst others.
• Qflow is a digital platform enabling construction teams to collect real-time materials and waste data at the source, enabling project teams to make informed decisions on cost, carbon, and quality.
• Construction accounts for 11 percent of global carbon emissions, making it the world’s most carbon-intensive industry.
• The funding will be used to scale operations in the UK and expand the company’s presence in the US and Australia. 
• Qflow is already working with Berkeley Group, Canary Wharf Group, Multiplex, and more.

London, UK. 30 May 2023: Construction tech scaleup Qflow has closed a £7.2M (~$9.1M USD) Series A  to support its mission to decarbonise global construction. The funding round was led by Climate Tech VC Systemiq Capital and includes an impressive group of investors across the construction industry and technology. The funding will scale Qflow’s operations in the UK and grow its presence in the US and Australia.

Amongst the investors for Qflow’s Series A are Ascension Ventures, Bridge Investment Group, Gravel Rd, Greensoil Proptech Ventures, Grosvenor, Jon Emrey; CEO of Aldar properties and former CEO of Lendlease; MMC, and Suffolk Tech. Qflow has previously raised £2.4M across two seed rounds, with investment from PiLabs, MMC, Goldacre, Entrepreneur First (EF London 10) and angel investors. 

The climate focused construction tech company was founded in 2018 by Brittany Harris and Jade Cohen after they met in New York while volunteering for World Merit, a platform for young and collaborative global citizens trying to make a positive impact in the world. Having both started careers in construction, they shared a love of the industry and huge frustrations that came from working in the space. They joined forces to create Qflow with the sole purpose of leaving the world in a better place than they found it.

Brittany Harris, Co-Founder & CEO of Qflow, said:

“Jade and I love the construction industry, it literally builds the world around us. But for it to build the sustainable future we need, it must change and reduce its negative impacts on our planet. To us, it was clear we had to tackle our own industry to have a chance of leaving this world in a better place, and this is why we founded Qflow. We are thrilled with the investors that have joined us in this round. ​The support we’ve received from big players in the sector shows they also see the importance of changing processes and accelerating this transformation towards a more sustainable future.”

Construction is the world’s most carbon-intensive industry, accounting for 11 percent of global carbon emissions. This is largely to do with the linear way it extracts, refines, transports, builds with, demolishes and disposes of materials. To decarbonise construction, there is a need to turn this linear approach into a circular one. 

Qflow is a digital platform enabling construction teams to collect real-time materials and waste data at the source, enabling project teams to make informed decisions on cost, carbon, and quality. This drives transparency and efficiency that enables cost and quality control and sustainability management. Its unique features and benefits include reducing waste by providing real-time data and analytics; increasing efficiency by automating and digitising a currently manual process; providing transparency over carbon savings; enabling the circular economy; and enhancing performance.

Companies already using Qflow include Berkeley Group, Canary Wharf Group, Grosvenor, Landsec, Morgan Sindall, Multiplex, Workplace Futures and more.

Matthew Goldstein, General Partner at Systemiq Capital, said:

“Qflow uniquely aligns the goals of construction CFOs and sustainability executives, accelerating customers’ decarbonisation ambitions while saving them time, money, and reducing regulatory risk. We are leading their Series A, at a time when most VCs are scaling back their activities, to accelerate and capitalise on this unique opportunity and critical mission. Further commitment from real estate and construction heavyweights Grosvenor, Bridge Investment Group and others is a testament to the value of Qflow’s solution and the work they are doing to transform the industry.”

Increased regulation and contractual requirements mean developers and contractors are now required to track, manage and report on their own carbon outputs and material safety, as well as that of their supply chain, to a much higher degree. All this combined with a huge skills shortage and material price inflation means construction teams have to do more with less.

The system is broken. Construction teams rely on the manual collection of thousands of paper tickets from hundreds of suppliers and sub-contractors during construction contracts. These paper tickets are then typed into multiple reporting systems for supplier payments, quality assurance and control, and sustainability reporting taking hours, introducing errors, and resulting in hundreds of thousands of pounds of rework.

Jeremy Ford, Chief Investment Officer at Bridge Ventures and Managing Director at Bridge Investment Group, said:

“We’re excited to support the solution Qflow provides. As a vertically integrated owner-operator, our in-house team quickly understood Qflow’s value proposition. The ability to efficiently incorporate this solution into our business makes this partnership dynamic and strategic.”

Andy Doyle, Innovation Director at Grosvenor Property UK, said:

“We’re delighted to collaborate with the Qflow team both as an investor and as a customer. We see real potential in what this technology can do for the construction sector – it makes the management of deliveries and waste much easier for our onsite teams and provides greater accuracy, and accountability, in our environmental reporting. To create circular supply chains in construction, we must be able to reliably account for what happens with construction waste – Qflow provides this clarity.”

Qflow is hiring across commercial and technical roles, hoping to grow its team of 30 by 200 percent by the end of 2024.

For more information go to qualisflow.com

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors

Press Kit: Available here

Press Contact

CEW Communications for Qflow

Cathy White, [email protected], +44(0)7791 232834

Renata Miranda, [email protected], +44(0)7427 068934

About Qflow

Qflow is a digital platform enabling construction teams to collect real-time materials and waste data at the source, enabling project teams to make informed decisions on cost, carbon, and quality. The company was founded in 2018 by Brittany Harris and Jade Cohen with the sole purpose of leaving the world in a better place than they found it. Qflow is on a mission to become the market-leading system for UK construction projects to capture and harness material and waste data on live sites. It does this by working with construction teams to enable them to track and manage their social and environmental impact and take a data-driven approach to improving that.

About Bridge Investment Group

Bridge is a leading, alternative investment manager, diversified across specialized asset classes, with approximately $48.8 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2023. Bridge combines its nationwide operating platform with dedicated teams of investment professionals focused on select U.S. verticals across real estate, credit, renewable energy and secondaries strategies.

About Grosvenor

Grosvenor is an international organisation whose activities span urban property, food and agtech, rural estate management and support for philanthropic initiatives. We are a values-led business which represents the Grosvenor family and share a common purpose – to deliver lasting commercial, social and environmental benefit – addressing today’s needs while taking responsibility for those of future generations.   With a track record of over 340 years, we work to improve urban property and places in many of the world’s leading cities, promoting sustainability within the built environment and enhancing the wellbeing of customers and communities. Our UK property business supports c1,000 businesses and tens of thousands of residents and workers across London’s West End each day. We also invest in, create and manage sustainable neighbourhoods in Liverpool and across England. As a 1.5oC aligned company, pioneering change and new ways of thinking about property we aim to ensure our places benefit both people and the planet over the long term.

About Systemiq Capital

Systemiq Capital is an investment platform leading the emerging field of system change investing. It brings the capital, expertise, and network that enables climate tech founders to scale successfully at speed.

Spun out of Systemiq Ltd, the world’s only “pure play” climate and systems change company,

Systemiq Capital invests in founders at late seed to Series A/B across sustainable food and materials, climate intelligence and finance, clean transport, and climate restoration. It is built around deep thought leadership, integrated with an unparalleled network of multi-specialist climate experts, policymakers, and c-suite corporate enablers. Combined with best-in-class practices on deal sourcing, investment decision-making and portfolio management, it can support world-class climate entrepreneurs to achieve success at scale, fast. 

Find out more at www.systemiqcapital.earth