New York, New York (Oct.15, 2019)—Toggle, a startup using robotics and automation to optimize the fabrication and assembly of rebar, announced it has raised $3 million in seed-funding to expand its team and further develop its robotics technology. Point72 Ventures’ AI Group led the round of financing and is joined by Mark Cuban and early-stage global VC Twenty Seven Ventures.
“Global urbanization is driving demand for ever larger and more complex urban highrise and civil infrastructure construction. At Toggle, we believe that part of the solution to delivering these projects will be through leveraging robotics and automation to multiply the productivity of labor,” said Toggle Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Daniel Blank. “We are extremely grateful for the incredible support we’ve had from our investors in helping to realize our vision of bringing large scale urban and infrastructure construction to communities at the same level of quality, speed and value as manufactured consumer goods.”
Toggle has developed new hardware, software and services that work in conjunction with industrial robots and other steel fabrication equipment to increase safety, productivity and precision in the rebar fabrication assembly process. The patent pending technology is allowing the company to deliver steel reinforcing products at lower cost and faster speed to customers in the construction industry. Toggle’s goal is to double labor productivity and to increase overall production five times over traditional assembly methods
“At Toggle we’ve been fortunate to build a team that brings together deep experience and expertise from manufacturing, robotics and construction, “said Toggle Chief Operations Officer (COO) Ian Cohen “We are also already working with an exclusive early adopter group of customers across renewable energy, civil infrastructure and residential construction.”
The construction industry is going through a broad evolution with modular and prefabrication of everything from houses to commercial buildings to bridges. Reinforced concrete is the fundamental building block of cities and infrastructure, making the steel reinforcement that provides its structural integrity a natural place to start this transformation. Toggle’s offering supports the construction of shared public resources like housing, energy and transportation.
Investor Commentary
“We are impressed by Toggle’s innovative approach to using robotics and model-driven automation to modernize a critical element of the construction process,” said Sri Chandrasekar, partner, Point72 Ventures. “Toggle’s approach has the potential to dramatically reduce rebar manufacturing costs, increase production facility capacity, and bring more precision and reliability to a fabrication process that is still largely reliant on manual labor. We are pleased to support the company’s future growth and innovation.”
“Toggle is leading the way toward new automated solutions for the fabrication and assembly of rebar using robotics in a United States- (Brooklyn, New York) based factory,” said Mark Cuban. We’re excited about bringing the next generation of factory jobs and pushing forward advanced robotic solutions. Toggle is a game changer for the construction industry.”
Atin Batra, general partner at Twenty Seven Ventures, said, “As early-stage investors, we’re in the business of backing exceptional Founders like Dan and Ian who are determined to dramatically change the ‘Future of Work’. We’re proud to have backed Toggle, a company that, with its proprietary technology and emphasis on automation, will increase productivity in construction and make such work significantly safer.”
For more information, visit toggle.is.