Balfour Beatty invests £10m in AI startup accelerator to improve project delivery

Balfour Beatty has invested in venture capital firm Pi Labs’ Fund IV. PI Labs wants the fund to reach £100m and will invest in up to 50 early-stage construction technology startups across robotics and AI, aiming to scale globally from the UK, Europe and North America.

Fund IV has already secured investments from Dar Ventures (the VC arm of international design consultancy Sidara) and Dubai-based developer Ellington Properties. Pi Labs has already invested in six firms via Fund IV.

Pi Labs was founded in 2015 and has made more than 100 investments in 15 countries since then. Startups that have already benefited from investment from Pi Labs include Qflow and SymTerra.

According to Pi Labs, Balfour Beatty “will open its construction sites as a living sandbox for emerging technology, putting our founders’ work on real projects, at national scale, long before the rest of the market catches up”.

Balfour Beatty group chief executive Philip Hoare said: “Productivity is one of the defining challenges – and greatest opportunities – facing our industry. To deliver the scale and complexity of infrastructure our customers and communities need, we have to keep finding better ways to work. Our investment in Pi Labs will give us earlier access to entrepreneurs and technologies that could improve delivery, build capability and capacity and create long-term value. This is a strategic investment in practical innovation, focused on the partnerships and insight our key markets need for the years ahead.” 

Pi Labs founder and managing partner, Faisal Butt, said: “Balfour Beatty’s commitment reflects a shared belief that technology and AI can improve how the built environment is designed, delivered, maintained and operated. Our ambition is to accelerate innovation across the sector and back the entrepreneurs working on some of its biggest challenges – from productivity and performance to sustainability and resilience. With Balfour Beatty’s support, we can help connect promising technologies with the infrastructure projects and industry expertise needed to test, scale and apply them in the real world.”