Posts Tagged Investment
Vela Systems Raises Series B Round : $6 Million from Autodesk and other investors : BIM
Posted by Jim Foster in BIM on September 3, 2010
“We now have the time and opportunity do things differently” that quote keeps coming back to, uttered by a GC we did work for, and now we see it’s not just HP and Dell battling over cloud computing but corporations active in the BIM space as well. Press Release Below.
Vela Systems Raises $6M Series B for Expansion, Strategic Partnerships
Autodesk Leads Round; Commonwealth Capital Ventures and GrandBanks Capital Provide Continued Support
Burlington, Mass. – September 2, 2010 – – Vela Systems, Inc., a provider of mobile field software for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, today announced it has closed a $6 million Series B round of equity financing led by new investor Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK). Series A investors Commonwealth Capital Ventures, GrandBanks Capital and individuals also participated in the round. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Coming off of a record-breaking first half of 2010, this latest round of funding positions Vela to expand and address rapidly-growing customer demand. Vela will use a portion of the investment to help support and expand the Autodesk partnership especially as it relates to bringing Building Information Models (BIM) to the point-of-construction.
“A year ago we announced our collaboration with Vela Systems to integrate Vela Systems’ construction field management software with Autodesk Navisworks Manage,” said Jim Lynch, vice president, BIM Product Group, Autodesk AEC Solutions. “Today’s investment announcement marks the next significant step in our growing relationship aimed at helping general contractors, construction managers and design-build firms streamline the BIM process from design through construction and into handover.”
BIM: Do you use it on a house? Do you use it here or there? I won’t use it Sam I am! :#BIM
Moral of the story, Sam likes it. Trolling through the variety of posts and discussion boards I came across this one about Is BIM the Future. And if we take a step back we should ask is 3D drafting the answer, which I think everyone would answer with a qualified yes. Working in 3D just makes everything faster, for presentations, for communicating with the clients, renderings, etc. Hell I even heard the comment that architects who would not touch CAD, are using SketchUP, and since they are SketchUP is gaining traction in the marketplace. BIM it is not, but communicating in 3D, it’s a snap and who wants to be against google. So if we are going to work in 3D, why not implement all these great tools and data which is essentially what BIM is. However, everyone is trying to jump, well not everyone, but most are trying to jump from a 2D world to try and fully implement BIM, and without getting your bearings in 3D first it’s a bit harder. Trying to implement a fully realized BIM, 4D-5D, Google-D, much tougher.
… baby steps get on the bus, baby steps down the aisle, baby steps…
But still I think you got to get started somewhere, because the expectation is you will have to deliver BIM, even if a lot might not be able to define it, but at least 3D. Recently someone asked us for a proposal on 120,000SF building to an existing conditions / as built survey to which I gave him a quote, he then asked what file type to which I replied that it was for 2D CAD / Floorplans. He then said I’d like in Revit. To which I replied, that would be more. His response, “Why?”
It will be the the coming expectations of everyone out there, and what’s tough, even with the all the ROI Case Studies of spending more money on the front end, very few want to do it. We are very early in the process of selling BIM / Revit to the masses so education is still going to be a big part of it. To get back on topic, is the future BIM? Yup, but were going to have to do a lot more selling and educating for it to pay for the firms creating them.
Real Estate Investors back in the Market: Britain
Posted by Jim Foster in Good on ya on June 16, 2009
Some British real estate investors think we are at the bottom, and who am I to say if they are wrong/right, it’s jsut nice to see activity. The Times reported this morning that some funds were oversubscribed for real estate investment as they have people getting back into the market as the combination of low rates and depressed prices is too hard to ignore.
