Checktobuild, the start-up born at EAE Madrid, winner of the Spain Awards for the most innovative project of 2023
Checktobuild, with its C2B Platform tool, has received the eAwards Spain prize for the most innovative project of 2023 awarded by NTT Data Foundation. The start-up, which emerged through the EAE Emprende Madrid service, has been awarded 20,000 euros non-refundable and access to a personalized acceleration program.
The company will represent Spain in the final of the Global eAwards, where on October 26 it will compete with the winners from 14 other countries in Europe and Latin America for a prize of an additional 100,000 euros, plus an intensive and personalized acceleration program by NTT Data experts.
The C2B Platform tool seeks to automate quality and progress processes in the construction field. Alejandro Ruiz, CEO and Founder, sums up how it works: "We automate construction inspection thanks to artificial intelligence. We make it possible for construction projects that would take weeks to decide in terms of quality and progress, to do so in minutes".
He also stated that: "in the design part, everyone knows specific companies, but in the execution of the work, that is, building better and faster, there are still no reference companies. That is what we are aiming for and we are working very hard to make it happen”.
From handheld measurements to process automation: the origin and future of Checktobuild
Checktobuild was founded in May 2020 with the aim of automating and making more accurate and objective the 2 most important processes of construction execution: Quality Control and Progress. Alejandro Ruiz Lara, founder of the start-up, a 28-year-old software engineer and when he was finishing his master's degree in Project Management at EAE Business School Madrid and during a stay at UC Berkeley, he got to know BIM technology. Through these new 3D models, architects could provide more digitized data to the works.
Due to his knowledge in technology and, above all, because of his personal history around construction - his father and brother have always been dedicated to the sector - he saw a unique opportunity. "My family comes from the construction world; my father and brother are bricklayers and always lamented about cost overruns and time overruns. That's where I saw the opportunity to use these BIM models to compare them with the real work and provide accurate quality control and progress information."
Since he was a child, he himself helped his father to take measurements by hand weekly for quality and progress control processes. It used to take at least a week to make decisions in each case and such processes were executed by two different teams, 1 or 2 times a week.
Based on a good market analysis in early 2020, Checktobuild started its company and product development in May 2020 to bring near real-time analysis and decision making for both processes thanks to its Machine Learning web platform, C2B Platform.
In 2020 he co-founded the company with his CMO and 2 senior advisors from the construction and technology sector. They had been his master's degree professors at EAE Madrid. He and the CMO started working in the company, creating the company as such and the IT standards. Shortly after they incorporated their CTO and began the product development.
During 2021, they incorporated four more employees, reinforcing the IT, commercial and marketing areas. "Today there are 7 of us covering with three IT engineers, two in business development and two in Marketing. After some very good news on investment and turnover issues, we expect to end 2023 already being nine and 2024 18, significantly increasing our commercial team in the US."
As of today, they have participated in more than 30 pilot projects and currently have contracts with 9 of the world's leading construction companies. Their tool achieves significant economic savings, as he explains, "in projects of about two years' duration and a budget of 10 million, we have saved almost 300,000 euros for each client". In addition, there is a significant reduction in CO2 emissions by reducing the amount of concrete and the use of heavy machinery.
Alejandro concludes: " With an eye on the future, at Checktobuild we are eager to take on the world. From day one, we have wanted to implant a technological concept in the minds of all construction projects around the world".