Bedrock Robotics, the company developing advanced autonomous systems for the $13 trillion global construction industry, emerged from stealth today with $80 million in Seed and Series A backing.
Rather than design and sell costly new machinery, Bedrock upgrades customers’ existing heavy equipment fleets with reversible, same-day hardware and software installs to enable fully autonomous operations.
With reindustrialization of the United States accelerating, Bedrock’s technology bridges the expanding gap between rapidly rising domestic infrastructure needs and shrinking workforce capacity.
In 2024, investment in US manufacturing facilities alone reached a record $238 billion. Despite a painful shortage of 500,000 construction workers, 1.25 billion hours are spent annually on operating heavy equipment.
With 40 percent of construction workers expected to retire in the next decade, the case for automation that enhances availability and flexibility of labor for the industry has never been stronger.
Founded by three former Waymo leaders – including the former head of its trucking program – and a fourth co-founder who previously led teams at Segment, the Bedrock Robotics leadership team brings extensive experience across machine learning, system architecture, and operation of autonomy technologies in complex, safety-critical environments.
Now, the company’s executives are applying their expertise to construction to improve cost, schedule, safety, and predictability of labor-intensive projects.
Laurent Hautefeuille, previous EVP at Uber Freight responsible for building the business from inception to $5 billion in revenue, has recently joined Bedrock as COO.
By integrating with existing construction machines and workflows, the Bedrock Operator powers machines with expert capabilities, empowering builders with the ability to work around the clock, accelerate project schedules, increase profitability and safety, and track progress on jobs.
Bedrock’s systems are running on machines, starting with excavators, across active customer construction sites in Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas.
The latest funding rounds, Series A led by 8VC and Seed led by Eclipse, will help Bedrock grow its engineering, operations, and commercialization teams, and deepen partnerships to reach its target of initial operator-less deployment in 2026.
Boris Sofman, CEO and co-founder of Bedrock Robotics, says: “The construction industry is facing so much pressure with the soaring demand for new factories and data centers, the housing crisis, and the mandate for re-industrialization in the US.
“The only way to rise to the occasion is by empowering construction teams with advanced automation they can trust.
“Together with our partners in the industry, we’re ushering in a new era where autonomy and intelligence supercharge building, which will benefit both contractors and society.”
Companies like Sundt Construction, a Phoenix-based general contractor with whom Bedrock collaborates closely on field testing and product improvements, are looking for ways to expand operational capacity.
Eric Cylwik, director at Sundt Construction, says: “At Sundt, we pride ourselves on being one of the most forward-thinking builders in the country. Staying at the forefront of innovation means continuously exploring technologies that can improve how we work.
“From our earliest conversations with Bedrock, it was clear they had a strong grasp on the challenges we were trying to solve with robotics.
“Their thoughtful approach to safety and deployment made it an easy decision to partner and pilot their system on our projects. When a technology proves its value in the field, this industry will pick it up fast.”
Bedrock Robotics has also recently teamed with three Texas firms, Zachry Construction, Champion Site Prep, and Capitol Aggregates.
Bedrock’s fundraising has also included participation from Two Sigma Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, NVentures (Nvidia’s venture capital arm), Crossbeam Venture Partners, Raine Group, Tishman Speyer, Atreides Management, Al Rajhi Partners, and Samsara Ventures.
