Contextualisation and motivation
Like many sectors, the construction and real estate industries are in a phase of accelerating the digitalisation of their processes and tools, in order to unlock productivity increases. However, the challenges are numerous: segmentation of the sector, delays and unforeseen events on site, dependence on the price of goods, etc.
A central element of this digitalisation is the increasing adoption of the BIM (building information model) – the digital twin of the building – i.e. a 3D computer model that contains all the constituent elements of the (future) building. BIM is considered one of the most important technologies for the future of the sector (source: Roland Berger, Turning point for the construction industry, The disruptive impact of Building Information Modeling (BIM) – Sept 2017).
The models are most often produced by architectural offices that have mastered the use of (complex) 3D modelling tools. These modelling tools are aimed at expert users and are not well adapted to the needs and skills of other actors who need to extract and exploit information from the models. These actors are for example project managers, asset managers, quantity surveyors, site engineers, etc. These are the people that Kabandy addresses, giving them simple and intuitive access to the data in the 3D models.
Mission
Kabandy means, in Sanskrit, “connect”. Connecting the many stakeholders in a real estate project, connecting a traditional sector with new technologies. Connecting expertise and experience to obtain the best operational and budgetary management
Kabandy’s mission is to democratise the use of BIM for visualisation, extraction and quantity surveying, for the following four different purposes/use cases:
- The creation or control of visual quantity surveys from the model in an intuitive and/or automatic way, for example for the quotation department of a general contractor, for an assistant to the owner or a property manager, who will use Kabandy to speed up and secure their tender process
- Progress reports from the model, with a view to optimising the site monitoring process by calculating the quantities executed for the various items, period after period
- Inventories from the model for asset management and the setting up of maintenance, upkeep and space management contracts
Evaluation of the quality control of the model. Models evolve over time: they are not the same in the pre-project phase, in the tender phase or in operation. It is therefore crucial to check the conformity of the metadata of these mock-ups. Kabandy makes it possible to do this automatically
Fundraising
“We have been using the Kabandy platform for a few months now at CIT Blaton and are very satisfied with it”, explains Vincent Didriche, Service Engineering Manager at CIT Blaton. “Our initial objective for Kabandy was to make it easier for our quotation team to handle 3D models. As the software is very intuitive, our quantity surveyors and estimators, who are not BIM experts, can quickly use the 3D models to produce visual quantity reports, which speeds up and secures our quoting process. Thanks to Kabandy, we also have a powerful tool for highlighting and reporting errors in the quantities supplied. Now, as a continuation of what was prepared with Kabandy during the quotation process, we are launching a phase of extending the use to construction sites. The idea here is to improve the reporting process of the execution of the work, through a fast and accurate extraction of the executed quantities from the 3D model.”
In April 2022, the company closed a fundraising round of just over €2M. A majority of this is equity (loan conversion and capital increase) raised from Theodorus, Sambrinvest (both lead invests), WING, Seederfund and business Angels. A small part is non-dilutive (suborned loan and bank loan).
The funds raised will allow:
- continue (and accelerate) the commercial development throughout Belgium – directly and via partners;
- to start internationalisation (FR, NL, LUX) – initially via partners;
- to continue with technological developments, in particular to develop new usage scenarios and to connect Kabandy with other digital partner solutions. Kabandy is collaborating in this respect with the ADEB/VBA, which groups together the major construction companies in Belgium) in order to integrate the players in the construction sector into the process of reflection on the evolution of the platform.
“A ULB spin-off, Kabandy presents a very advanced technological solution in the field of BIM, intervenes Olivier Mertens, Head of Digital at Sambrinvest. It took the company several years to find its Product Market Fit. Today, with the help of its new CEO Diego d’Udekem, we are focusing on the commercial deployment of the solution. The feedback from the market is excellent! Kabandy joins other Proptech companies (editor’s note: Letsbuild, Smartbeam, WeInvest, SBExpert and Trigrr) in the Sambrinvest portfolio. This strengthens our fund’s expertise in this promising sector.”
“In a sector that is struggling to keep up with the pace of digitalisation, we are proud to have been able to convince some of Belgium’s largest construction groups to adopt our solution and to demonstrate our added value to them”, says Adrien Van der Borght, principal at Theodorus.
