AROUND THE NETWORK: GS Futures Leads New Funding for Change Order SaaS Company Clearstory

Extracker, the construction industry’s only Change Order communication tool, recently announced it has evolved its brand amid significant growth. To better reflect the company’s commitment to trust and transparency, it has changed its name to Clearstory. Additionally, the company announced $5.5 million in fresh capital to accelerate its trajectory and accommodate industry demand for tools that help all construction stakeholders reduce risk. The latest funding was led by Builtworlds member GS Futures with participation from existing investors Jackson Square Ventures, Building Ventures and Cloud App Capital Partners, who invested more than their pro rata.

Clearstory’s value proposition of risk reduction has fueled its growth at a time when the construction industry faces unprecedented challenges from supply chain issues, labor shortages and a changing economic climate– all of which are squeezing already thin margins. Traditional Change Order Management tools focus on forecasting Change Orders against a company’s internal project budget, and as a result cannot communicate externally. Because of this, construction teams rely on tools like email, static logs and carbon copy to track out-of-contract work between stakeholders and their various systems. Clearstory calls this “The Change Order Gap” which causes breathtaking amounts of manual work, increased risk and often disputes. These manual tools are untenable for today’s market. Clearstory solves these issues through its powerful SaaS solution that serves as a nexus point between Specialty Contractors, General Contractors and Owners and works with whatever financial software they use internally.

“Change is constant in commercial construction projects. Unfortunately today, drawings are less complete, projects are more complex, schedules are faster and dollars are more scrutinized, leading to a constant pressure around Change Orders for GCs, Specialty Contractors and Owners,” said Cameron Page, Founder and CEO of Clearstory and a former commercial General Contractor. “We are the first to build a communication layer for the industry that allows stakeholders to align in real-time on changes and ensure that all internal systems of record are up to date. We are proud of the innovation we have delivered to the industry and are excited knowing this is just the start.”

Clearstory currently works with more than 40% of the ENR Top 25 General Contractors. To date, over $5 billion in Change Orders have been shared between commercial construction companies on the Clearstory network. With its powerful workflows like digital time and material tags, Change Order templates and change notifications, it also reduces processing time on Change Orders by up to 70%.

“Change Orders are THE mechanism that dictates cash flow for trade contractors, fee erosion for general contractors and budgetary success for owners. Cam and the team at Clearstory are exceptional in every right,” said Aaron Toppston, Managing Partner at GS Futures and construction industry veteran. “They understand the construction industry and how to build product to improve outcomes of change orders for all stakeholders. We are proud to partner with Clearstory on its next phase of growth.”

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