From its inception, the built sector’s startup and investor landscape has been heavily dominated by people with specific sector domain experience – both on the investor and on the entrepreneur side of the equation. Unlike the B to C environment or, perhaps even more broadly accessible B-to-B sectors like Healthcare or Finance, the sector benefits significantly from very specific domain expertise and knowledge of the fragmented ecosystem. Perhaps, for this reason, Corporate Venture Capital has been particularly active. We’ve seen investment led by sector-specific funds, often backed by industry players, direct investment and piloting from strategics, challenges and accelerators led by industry players, and even a number of startups incubated and spun out of strategics. To help break down all of these activities, the panel brings some of the most active, strategic investors in the sector together to share their perspectives on the state of corporate investing in the industry today.

Speakers:

Grant McCullagh, Director, Thornton Tomasetti

Vivin Hegde, Director Technology Office, Hilti

Will Longsworth, Director of Finance, Barton Malow

Leonid Astrin, Managing Partner, Shibumi International