Dusty Robotics, Mountain View, Calif., closed a $5 million seed round led by NextGen Venture Partners, Baltimore, Md., and joined by returning investors Baseline Ventures, San Francisco; Root Ventures, San Francisco; and Cantos Ventures, San Francisco.

Dusty builds automation tools to accelerate the digital transformation of the commercial construction industry.

“The commercial construction industry is worth over a $10 trillion a year worldwide, yet it’s one of the least automated. Thankfully, forward-thinking builders are embracing the latest technology tools to move into the digital age,” says Tessa Lau, co-founder and CEO. “Robotics is critical for construction because it creates a tight feedback loop between digital models and the job sites where work is done, eliminating manual steps and ensuring crews always build off the latest designs.”

“Dusty Robotics is a cutting-edge technology company disrupting the commercial construction market, bringing much-needed automation to one of the world’s largest industries,” says Ben Bayat, managing partner at NextGen Venture Partners. “We invested in Dusty because we’re confident the stellar team will succeed in bringing innovation to the construction sector, which is adopting new technologies at a rapid pace. Dusty’s founders are seasoned roboticists and entrepreneurs who have developed a deep understanding of the construction industry and are building the right automation solutions to address key pain points."

For example, FieldPrinter is an autonomous mobile robot that prints layout plans—used to show crews where to build walls and other fixtures—directly onto the floors of job sites. Using layouts created in Building Information Modeling (BIM) software, FieldPrinter streamlines the process of transferring layout plans into the field and enables crews to work more quickly and accurately, reducing errors and speeding up projects.