Pillar Technologies Raises $2.75M Seed Round, Led by XL Innovate, to Scale Deployment of Smart Sensors For Construction Sites

NEW YORK, Sept. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pillar Technologies, the first company to capture, measure, and distribute risk data on construction sites with a series of smart sensors, announced today it has secured $2.75 million in seed funding from XL Innovate, Hyperplane VC, and Techstars Ventures. The funding will enable Pillar to scale the manufacturing of its sensors, and expand the team building its real-time risk management software platform for construction companies and contractors. As part of the financing round, Martha Notaras, a partner at XL Innovate, will join the Pillar board of directors. 

Pillar deploys industrial-grade sensors across construction sites to address high-value risks during and after construction by actively monitoring key environmental factors, such as temperature, pressure, humidity, smoke, and dust. General contractors and insurers are using the Pillar data management platform to monitor sites, forecast failures, and be alerted to costly hazards such as water leaks, freezes, fire, mold outbreaks and more. The objective of the Pillar sensor platform is to protect sites from damage and reduce insurance claims, thereby minimizing losses and insurance costs for general contractors. In addition, in the event of a destructive event, Pillar provides crucial, real-time information to first responders.

According to PWC, the total construction spend in the United States in 2016 was $1.1 trillion, with growing demand for technologies that help improve efficiency and reduce waste. Technology spend in the construction industry is slated to increase to $58B by 2022, already indicated by strong demand for Pillar's offering. Claims on property damage in construction sites can reach tens of millions of dollars ? the difference between construction companies making a profit or facing substantial losses. Such costly damages are often attributed to slow detection of events, as well as a lack of data to make sure such events do not reoccur.

"Construction sites continue to be a dangerous place. From fires to fumes, the ability to predict occurrences that may harm workers, or the site itself, can serve as a powerful tool to save both lives and livelihoods. At Pillar, we've refined the definition of construction technology, offering a hardware and software experience that seamlessly does exactly that ? opening the door to preventive action that dramatically lessens the probability and severity of such events," said Alex Schwarzkopf, co-founder and CEO of Pillar Technologies."

Pillar recently finished its pilot program with national construction companies and is now making the technology commercially available to early adopters. "At Pillar, we have deep domain expertise in construction and sensor technology, and we're excited to have Martha Notaras and the XL Innovate team add valuable insurance and operational expertise, which rounds out our offering," Schwarzkopf added.

"By bringing industrial-grade sensors to construction sites, Pillar can offer more accurate risk management to general contractors and potential policy optimization to insurance providers to better protect sites from damage," said Martha Notaras. "Gathering and analyzing key environmental data can help predict and prevent major issues while allowing insurers and their clients to reduce losses over the long run."

To learn more, please visit www.pillar.tech

About Pillar:
Pillar Technologies is a real-time risk management platform for general contractors. It helps its users predict and prevent damages. Through the use of on-site sensors, the company monitors for destructive environmental conditions such as fire outbreaks, water leak, and mold growth. These damages serve as major sources of revenue loss for general contractors and insurance companies. The features of the platform are risk mitigation, failure forecasting, and insurance optimization. Pillar Technologies is a U.S.-based company that was founded in 2015 by Alex Schwarzkopf, Sean Iacobone, and Matt Joyal.

About XL Innovate:
XL Innovate is a venture capital fund focused on investing in companies that address the world's most complex risks with new technologies and products for the insurance industry. XL Innovate provides companies with equity capital, unparalleled experience in building new ventures in this specific space, and access to XL Catlin's global insurance expertise and underwriting. To learn more, visit www.xlinnovate.com.

About XL Group plc:
XL Group plc (NYSE:XL), through its subsidiaries and under the XL Catlin brand, is a global insurance and reinsurance company providing property, casualty and specialty products to industrial, commercial and professional firms, insurance companies and other enterprises throughout the world. Clients look to XL Catlin for answers to their most complex risks and to help move their world forward. To learn more, visit www.xlcatlin.com.

About Hyperplane Venture Capital
Hyperplane Venture Capital is an investment firm focused on exceptional founders building machine intelligence and data companies. The company was founded by Brendan Kohler and Vivjan Myrto in 2015; and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. To learn more, visit www.hyperplane.vc

SOURCE XL Innovate