Mastt Raises $2.2m, Prepares for Overseas Expansion and Infrastructure Boom

Mastt, a construction technology start-up backed by the founders of Aconex, has raised $2.2m to support the growing capital and infrastructure project boom bringing Australia out of a COVID-19 recession and to fuel an overseas expansion.

The round was co-led by global investment firms Artesian and Significant Capital Ventures, who were joined by Investible, Aconex founders Rob Phillpot and Leigh Jasper, and former CIO of Lendlease, Bob Hennessy.

Co-founded by construction industry veteran Doug Vincent and software engineer Jamie Cerexhe, Mastt is a capital project technology SaaS (software as a service) that serves as a nerve centre for project owners managing complex programs and portfolios of construction projects. Mastt is heavily supported by Microsoft and took part in their international Scale-Up program.

The platform provides capital project owners with transparency and real-time analysis across projects, in order to make immediate decisions and prevent cost and time blowouts across the portfolio. It’s a process that traditionally required collating thousands of documents and spreadsheets.

Mastt’s clients include the Australian Army, Jacobs Engineering, RPS Group and Aurecon. Despite being founded only in 2019, the company has gone on to service nearly $10 billion worth of capital and infrastructure projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company aims to expand globally in the second half of 2021 via a remote expansion strategy.

“Mastt is providing project owners with the technology they need to deliver projects faster and with less risk, no longer having to rely on thousands of spreadsheets and documents,” Doug Vincent co-founder and CEO of Mastt said.

“With Mastt, asset owners and client-side project managers get an unrivalled real-time view on how their projects are tracking at a granular level, so they can unblock issues and stop risks before they occur. This way, asset owners can allocate funds to new projects with confidence, rather than waiting up to 60 days for an outdated report. It’s instrumental in ensuring more projects can be delivered by our clients through the platform and save significant time for project managers running projects.”

“Australia is relying on spending in capital and infrastructure projects to help rebound its economy after this pandemic. We believe we’re well-positioned to play a key role in supporting more efficient capital spending and expediting all of these new projects.”

“Thanks to the success of Aconex, there’s a global appetite for Australian innovation in construction technology. We’re well placed and supported by amazing investors to follow Aconex’s footsteps both abroad and towards being a leading Australian construction technology company.”

Investor quotes

“We are excited to be involved with Mastt who are providing an extremely interesting and unique product for the project owner’s market, which has traditionally been lacking in technology,” Rob Phillpot, Aconex co-founder said.

“We’ve been watching the development of the Mastt product and team for over 12 months and were really impressed with their industry insight, professionalism and drive. The product is exactly the type of productivity innovation that is required across the industry offering real value up and down the value chain and intelligent solutions. Mastt is incredibly wellpositioned for global expansion and continuing the success of Australian tech entrepreneurs.” - Fiona Hindmarsh, Chief Investment Officer at Significant Capital Ventures.

“Mastt is tackling a much-underserviced sector of the construction tech market in the project owners space ranging from the federal government's spending billions per year on projects, right down to high schools upgrading campus in what is traditionally a very low-tech office environment, but where the biggest impact decisions are made. The Mastt founders bring a winning blend of deep industry experience and tech team management, they are solving a complex problem that they have experienced first-hand and providing the tech grunt to scale up a global play in the sector,” Alexandra Clunies-Ross, Portfolio Manager Artesian said.

“We were drawn to the long-term vision and industry experience of the Mastt team. The ability to work for both asset managers and consultants also gives the business an efficient path to scale,” said Daniel Veytsblit, Investment Director at Investible.

About Mastt

Founded in 2019 by Doug Vincent and Jamie Cerexhe, Mastt provides capital and infrastructure project offices with a cloud SaaS platform that provides an easy to use and transparent means of managing and reporting of their complex construction and infrastructure projects. In less than two years, the company has gone on to serve federal government organisations and Fortune 500 companies, including Australian Army, Jacobs Engineering, RPS Group and Aurecon.

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