Lumber, creator of the comprehensive workforce management platform for construction, recently announced the launch of its SaaS product and the completion of a $5.5M seed round of funding. With its fully integrated, purpose-built solutions, Lumber is designed to meet the growing compliance and workforce needs of an essential industry. 

“Small to medium-sized construction firms face a formidable challenge as they confront labor constraints and a complex regulatory environment testing the limits of their operational capacity and profitability,” said Lumber Founder and CEO Shreesha Ramdas.

“Lumber’s LLM-powered platform and AI chatbot will help management teams at SMB construction firms to deploy a game-changing workforce experience.” 

Today, the construction industry faces significant technological limitations while struggling to meet complex regulatory and labor requirements, making modernization and growth difficult. Construction is also a heavily regulated sector, with disparate new regulations emerging continuously at the federal, state and local level. 

Labor shortages and scheduling issues require contractors to utilize a diverse workforce from different unions and states and with different types of engagements – greatly complicating rules for payroll, compliance and overall management. Current workforce management approaches range from archaic (paper or excel spreadsheets) to overly broad (general SaaS solutions that offer limited features or must be combined with other software).

“Construction technology has lagged behind other industries, resulting in inefficiencies and waste in project execution. Many construction firms are primarily focused on staying afloat and meeting customer needs. The Lumber platform is making unified workforce management vision a reality by integrating disparate data elements from various systems and project stages,” said Gerardo Rivera, Co-owner of Level 5 Drywall. 

With an LLM trained on the large sets of regulatory and compliance data for the construction industry, Lumber is designed to offer a simplified user experience for the back offices of small to medium construction firms.

“In today’s fast-paced and labor-constrained construction industry, payroll solutions for specialty contractors and the types of trade partners we use need to go beyond basic payment processing and adopt next-generation automation to stay compliant with regulations, boost efficiency, and enhance the employee experience,” said Atul Khanzode, management executive at DPR Construction, the largest construction firm in California. “I believe that Lumber is bringing much-needed automation to the construction industry with a modern, purpose-built payroll and time-tracking solution that is powered by a construction-specific LLM with an initial focus on industry regulations.”

Added Pankaj Tibrewal, General Partner, Carbide Ventures. “The Lumber team brings together an exceptional blend of technological prowess and product expertise required to revolutionize workplace productivity in traditional industries.”

The funding round was led by Carbide Ventures, with participation from Escape Velocity, 8VC, Sure Ventures, Converge VC, and Firsthand Alliance, as well as notable individual investors.

The Lumber platform is now available to general contractors, subcontractors, and specialty contractors who want to leverage its integrated time tracking and payroll application. To sign up please visit Lumber.