2 July 2018 – BUILK announced securing funding from AddVentures by SCG, joining forces to enhance the construction supply chain in Thailand and ASEAN with a full range of B2B platforms under the concept of “UNITED WE BUILK”. BUILK plans to improve the service with AI-Blockchain technology before expanding the business from five countries to ten ASEAN countries, whilst Addventures believes the investment will be beneficial for BUILK, SCG and some 80,000 small to medium sized contractors.
Patai Padungtin, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of BUILK One Group (BUILK), the developer of the construction contractor platform, said Thailand’s construction industry has slowly evolved in opposite directions with the surging of market value of construction industry every year. Obsoleteness and low technology have caused inefficiency and risk to the construction supply chain comprising of developers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and manufacturers as they have insufficient information to support their fast decision making. Essentially, BUILK’s aim is to solve the industry pain point by bringing its technology to help the construction supply chain.
To boost the competitiveness to another level, BUILK has joined forces with AddVentures by SCG and becoming a strategic partner under the concept of “UNITED WE BUILK” in order to enhance Thailand’s construction industry to catch the global digitization trend and fully utilizing a technological platform. In the future, it aims to develop a B2B purchasing-buying process, to enhance the country’s construction industry and to expand the platform to all 10 ASEAN countries.
BUILK One Group, a Thai startup, has been operating since 2009. It is the first startup in Asia that provides the construction business management software for free with the determination of helping the Thai construction industry turn into the digital world. Currently, BUILK.COM has served over 25,000 small and medium-sized contractors in five countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
The distinctive point of BUILK.COM is BUILK’s Cost Control feature which helps contractors control the project’s workflow including budgeting, cost accounting, expenses and revenue via the online system. It also keeps SMEs contractors recognize the turnover with real-time update and manage the workflow efficiently. Currently, it has various business models including 1. Pojjaman2 – a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for large-sized contractors 2. BUILK.COM – an online cost control system, which is free of charge for SMEs contractors 3. YELLO Smart Purchase – an online system of purchasing construction materials for contractors 4. JUBILI by BUILK – a sale management and customer relation system 5. PLOY by BUILK – a sale-construction-transfer management system for property developers and 6. KwanJai by BUILK – a maintenance and after sales service management for property developers. All of BUILK’s services focuses on using the software to improve the workflow efficiency and the service for B2B customers, in line with the direction of AddVentures by SCG.
Dr. Joshua Pas, Managing Director of AddVentures by SCG, said that the contractor and construction material business has continuously grown in Thailand and ASEAN. In 2017, the total market value of construction materials among Thai contractors was estimated to be worth more than 68 billion baht. Over 75 per cent of the value was generated by small-to-medium-sized contractors who still runs their business with an inefficient procurement and cost management system. BUILK’s technology can help solve these pain points and enhance the efficiency of procurement and cost management system for an estimated 80,000 contractors only counting Thailand.
“We are confident in the potential of BUILK which has been in this business for years and offers a variety of technological platforms including cost management software, after sales service management and e-commerce for construction materials. This cooperation between BUILK, AddVentures and SCG will boost the competitiveness of the region’s construction industry and help contractors reduce costs and manage their businesses in real time,” said Dr Joshua.
Following this investment, SCG will support BUILK to scale up and strengthen its marketing, distribution, logistics and supply chain by cooperating with dealer networks and penetrating international markets, where SCG has a strong customer base.
Before deciding to provide funding and tightening the partnership, AddVentures made a commercial deal with BUILK since Q1/2018 to explore the best option which will generate the most benefit for the supply chain of construction businesses.
AddVentures by SCG was formally launched in mid 2017 to invest in startups domestically and globally. Such investment will help SCG to adopt new innovations in order to boost its competitiveness and provide better products and faster services to lift consumers’ quality of life. It gives priority to three verticals which are
1. Industrial 2. B2B and 3. Enterprise.
