A French PropTech has raised £7.8 million and plans to expand into the UK.
Saqara, formerly known as AOS, is a digital procurement platform serving the construction industry.
It has hosted 4,500 projects on its platform since 2018, totalling over €18 billion of construction and infrastructure works, and has grown to 120 employees who support more than 500 clients, 50,000 users and more than 25,000 referenced contractors.
It says its success reflects the key role it plays in digitising bid management which minimises admin, reduces costs and drives efficiencies and transparency across procurement.
In 2020 Saqara expanded into Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The Series A funding round – led by A/O PropTech and joined by Activum SG, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation, Concrete VC and Leigh Jasper – will help fuel its international expansion into Germany, Netherlands, UK and southern Europe as well as broaden its product suite and platform.
The geographical deployment also includes a new Tunisian strategic hub to accelerate its MENA footprint.
The firm says the UK remains a major player in the global construction industry and Saqara’s expansion will help to digitise and simplify the procurement process which should aid in driving efficiencies and transparency in the UK construction sector.
PropTech 50 – UK’s most innovative property technology creators for 2021
“We are delighted to welcome new partners and to work towards building tomorrow’s world together,” said Alexandre Brochot, president of Saqara.
“ This financing round will be indispensable to our goal to continuously innovate and develop our products and to offer our current and future clients an unrivalled quality of service and user experience that will fully meet their expectations.
“We will also be able to accelerate our international growth by expanding to four countries annually. In the long term, we want to play a key role in the digitalisation of the sector to ensure that the everyday activities of professionals in the construction industry are made easier while leaving a positive mark on the world.”
Othmane Zrikem, chief data officer of A/O PropTech, said: “In the context of inflationary pressure and material shortages, there has never been a more important time for property developers and construction firms to digitise their processes and drive efficiencies. Saqara’s platform makes that possible.
“We are extremely proud to lead Saqara’s Series A as it expands into the UK, Germany and North Africa. We have been impressed by Saqara’s core product which has processed over €18 billion of construction and infrastructure tenders since 2018. Saqara is the leading European ConTech platform for bid management process and we are excited about the new products currently under development which will help further revolutionise the construction industry going forward.”