Autodesk $240 Million Acquisition of Norway-Based Spacemaker Further Evidence of Global Tie-Ups In Buildings & Infrastructure

News of Autodesk's $240 million acquisition of Oslo, Norway-based, Spacemaker.AI offers the latest evidence of the maturation of Europe's Buildings and Infrastructure technology sector and the increasing trend toward international deals, as leading edge technology companies are cropping up far beyond early centers in places like San Francisco, Boston, and London and as the industry's growing tech players push to expand their customer bases, globally. The deal also highlights the growing importance of AI and Machine learning in this phase of technology dealmaking. An emerging leader in the field of AI and generative design tools for early-stage development and design planning, Spacemaker Founder & CEO, Havard Haukeland spoke at our Global Summit in Paris in 2019, and we identified Spacemaker among a list of promising European Startups in our 2019 European Report.

2019 European Annual Report
BuiltWorlds began visiting Europe in 2017, documenting the emerging Buildings and Infrastructure startup ecosystem there. In our 2019 European Report, we looked at promising startups, leading investors, and other major players across the European Continent.

Around the World, Deals Sizes Grow & More Companies Invest Internationally.

Autodesk's acquisition of Spacemaker is certainly not the first international deal in the AEC tech sector. Oracle's $1.2 Billion acquisition of Australia-based Aconex may still be the largest, and Bentley's acquisition of London-base synchro was another illustration of the trend. In the reverse, Nemetchek's acquisitions of Bluebeam is an example of a European firm buying an American firm. What appears to be different now is the pace of larger deals. Over four days, this past October, we covered international investment in the sector, looking at examples of earlier and later stage companies garnering growing international investment, not only in Europe, but also in places like South America, Australia, Israel, and Saudi Arabia/UAE.

Moving from Digitization of Workflows to Automation and Intelligence.

Early in the sector's technology transformation, the focus was on moving companies from Excel spreadsheets and paper forms and blueprints into cloud based, mobile-friendly systems with structured databases and workflows that would reduce labor associated with double-entry, lack of access to data, and the simple pains of printing, scanning, faxing, mailing, filing and otherwise managing paper.  In the last several years, the attention has shifted from moving processes online to leveraging Machine Learning and Artificial intelligence to gain faster and better insights from data to make predictions and to automate processes.  Spacemaker is one example of this growing breed of solutions, and we can expect to see a lot more from that group in the years to come, especially as older and more established firms look to incorporate those features into their own offerings.

 

Research and Lists Featuring Emerging Tech in AI and Machine Learning:

Watch Recent Discussion Sessions and Demos Around AI/Machine Learning:

Highlights | Demo Night

Get a taste of what you missed on Demo Night as general contractors were out in strength, joining more than 100 other visitors from architects, subs, owners, and tech vendors who flocked to BW to play with toys like
DAQRI’s ‘Smart Helmet’ and IrisVR’s 3D headset.

BuiltWorlds & Chicago VR Meetup | Virtual Reality Night

BuiltWorlds in collaboration with the Chicago VR Meetup will be hosting a night centered around VR, with demonstrations and Q & A with VR professionals in architecture. irisVR will be doing a demonstration with
Oculus Rift Technology with founders Shane Scranton and Nate Beatty. Damon Hernandez of Spiral Concepts will be talking with the group as well and discussing VR in the built environment.

Lunch Break with Divvy

Elliot Greenberger of Divvy and Sean Wiedel of CDOT came by BuiltWorlds to discuss how Divvy has changed Chicago’s built environment and what their plans are for expansion in 2015

A Few Minutes With… Bridgit

Divvy Luncheon with BuiltWorlds

On January 15th, come learn about how Divvy, the bike sharing system across Chicago, is changing the built environment.

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BuiltWorlds is the buildings and infrastructure industry’s leading platform for open innovation, keeping companies in the worlds of engineering, construction and related fields informed and connected, and helping them find avenues to collaborate for their own strategic success and for the betterment of the industry, as whole. For more information about BuiltWorlds, visit the BuiltWorlds Network