A London start-up hoping to simplify how Britain’s smaller construction firms buy materials has raised £4.2 million in seed funding, as investors continue to back AI businesses tackling inefficiencies in traditional industries.
Prolo, founded by entrepreneur James Morris-Manuel, secured the funding in a round led by Triple Point Ventures. Andreessen Horowitz’s Scout Fund was among the other investors taking part.
The company has built an AI-powered procurement platform that lets small and medium-sized contractors order building materials, plant hire and equipment through a single service. Instead of navigating multiple suppliers, site managers can place orders over WhatsApp, email or by phone, while the platform checks prices across a network of more than 185 suppliers.
The aim is to give smaller builders access to the sort of trade pricing that has traditionally been reserved for larger construction firms. Prolo also offers payment terms of up to 90 days, something the company says can help ease cash-flow pressures.
The funding comes at a difficult time for the construction sector. Material prices remain high, labour shortages continue to bite, and margins have been squeezed across much of the industry. For many smaller contractors, procurement is still a manual, time-consuming process, leaving little room to negotiate better prices or streamline purchasing.
Morris-Manuel is no stranger to construction technology. He previously founded property tech company Virtual Walkthrough, which was later acquired by US-listed spatial data specialist Matterport. After the acquisition, he went on to lead Matterport’s operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
He believes smaller contractors have spent years at a disadvantage because of fragmented supply chains and limited buying power.
“For decades, SME contractors have been penalised by a lack of price transparency and inefficient ordering,” he said. “With Prolo, we are entirely shifting the dynamic of construction supply chains.”
The new funding will be used to grow the company’s sales and marketing teams while speeding up development of additional AI tools for the platform.
Sam Stone, an investor at Triple Point Ventures, said procurement remains one of the most labour-intensive and margin-sensitive parts of running a construction business. Automating more of that process, he said, has the potential to save contractors both time and money.
