Two construction tech founders walk into the Tech in Asia office

At any given point of time in Singapore, there is something, somewhere, that is under construction.

The country’s need for construction shows no sign of slowing down, with demand expected to climb even more in the next few years.

But for all the growth that the country’s construction industry is experiencing, it’s still plagued by problems around safety and progress management. As of August, there were 16 workplace fatalities in Singapore’s construction sites this year. The sector also faces challenges with project delays and accountability.

Can tech help address these problems?

Tackling problems with tech

One sunny Friday morning in September, I got the founders of two startups in the construction tech space – Kyle Tan, CEO and co-founder of Airsquire, and Vishnu Saran, CEO and co-founder of Invigilo – to come down to Tech in Asia’s Singapore office.

Invigilo offers an AI-powered video analytics platform to detect safety violations in high-risk workplaces, whereas Airsquire uses image analytics and AI to produce 360-degree scans of buildings and construction sites.

Instead of just hearing Tan and Saran talk about their solutions, I decided it’d be great to see them in action and have the two founders try out each other’s platforms.

Tan went first, equipping Saran with a 360 camera mounted on a hard hat.

“You just need to turn on the camera and check that it’s connected to the app,“ Tan explained.

“And then I just walk through [the office]?” asked Saran.

“And then you just walk through.”

As Saran walked through our office, the camera atop his head recorded what the office looked like and Airsquire’s platform generated a digital twin in a matter of minutes.

According to Tan, this program addresses many issues that construction firms face with site progress documentation and data-driven project management. Instead of having to do a photo report or physically go down to track progress on construction sites, project managers can simply get someone on-site to capture the footage.

They can then make comparisons with previous recordings to see how much work has been done. This can also help resolve disputes by providing clear records and photographic evidence.

We then had a demo of Invigilo’s product. Saran pulled out his laptop and showed us a dashboard that captured different CCTV feeds.

Invigilo takes project documentation, risk statements, and insights from safety teams to understand what kind of activities are going on, which areas are “danger zones” on site, and what kind of safety lapses could occur. It then feeds this information to its AI-powered platform, which in turn monitors CCTV footage to identify when and where these lapses take place.

Site managers can view footage in real time on the dashboard and alerts can be sent to the relevant parties whenever a lapse is detected so that folks on the ground can react quickly to the issue. Over time, the data can be aggregated to generate reports about the overall safety of the workplace, giving firms a “safety heartbeat” of their sites.

“I can see how for the customer, this is like an extra pair of eyes to help them flag any safety breaches,” Tan remarked.

According to Saran, Invigilo isn’t focused on detecting accidents but on the “near-misses.”

“When an accident happens, the unsafe behavior that led to it probably happened 20, 50 times before,” he said. “Each time a person does something risky – like climbing up a high structure without a harness – the probability of an accident happening increases. We want to enable the safety officer to intervene before it gets to that.”

It’s also easy to see how the two startups could complement each other. After Airsquire takes a 360-degree scan of the space, perhaps Invigilo could analyze it for any safety violations?

“We did actually work on a proof-of-concept together once,” Tan shared. “It’s something we’re keen to explore in the future.”

It’s all about the people

Both Airsquire and Invigilo’s solutions seem really cool – but for the two founders, “cool” is not enough when it comes to changing the construction sector.

“We’re in a space where just talking about the coolness of a technology, or how effective it is, is secondary to the stakeholders’ mindsets,” Tan said.

“You need to do something that actually shows that you understand them,” Saran concurred. “User empathy is super important.”

For both Tan and Saran, they needed to understand potential customers’ concerns around technology. Some feel that their solutions are invasive, fearing that the information collected can be used against them, whereas others are dismissive of the need for such services.

“We need to try and figure out what the industry values are to entice these people to come into the space,” Tan said.

These include showcasing potential returns on investment, going down to worksites to demonstrate their solutions, or even trying to appeal to a desire to be a first mover.

On the bright side, both Tan and Saran have observed a shift in the mindsets around how people approach construction. There’s been a blurring of lines between the roles of contractors and consultants. Data has also become a valuable tool to enable both sides to provide their customers with more effective support and guidance.

Additionally, there’s a new generation of leaders coming into construction firms.

“A lot of the sons and daughters are taking over the businesses. They’re big on tech and want to drive innovation in these companies,” said Saran. “It will take a lot to change mindsets in the industry as a whole but we’re seeing a shift.”

Being a part of the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s Spark program has also helped the two firms by opening up opportunities with government agencies. This enabled them to deploy their solutions on construction projects and connect with companies that they might not have been able to otherwise.

Coming up next

As Singapore’s construction sector continues to transform, both Tan and Saran have their eyes set on scaling up their solutions and expanding beyond the city-state.

“We’re working toward scaling up all products on the cloud, as well as looking at markets where people can really benefit from our solution, where construction sites can be big and inaccessible,” Saran said. “We’re talking the Middle East or Europe, where you have sites that are like five to 10 kilometers across.”

“For Airsquire, we want to further increase our presence in Europe and Asia,” Tan shared. “We want to demonstrate that a technology that has seen success in Singapore can be used to benefit businesses in other parts of the world.”

Here’s to a safer and more data-driven future for construction.