Congratulations to the Varicon team for raising their follow-on round led by Black Nova and other notable investors including Aconex founder Leigh Jasper, construction tech investor Andrew Sypkes and leading luminaries from the quantity surveying and civil construction industries.

Founded by seasoned construction insiders James Baker, Ofer Assor, and tech entrepreneur Siddhant Shrestha, Varicon is the team's first high-growth company to become Australia’s leading provider of cost management solutions for the $82 billion civil construction industry, plagued by billions in annual losses from budgeting blowouts. 

Varicon assists construction firms to reduce financial risk and simplify onsite cost management with mobile technology. Their new construction technology is set to save construction firms billions through cloud-native cost management and analytics.

We believe teams of industry insiders like Varicon are set up to build a category-defining business, and the time is right for this product. Their initial industry feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and their list of strategic investors is an indicator of this. 

Varicon is a fully remote team in Australia, Nepal, and the Philippines with a team of 31 but started with only 4 when we invested a year ago. 

Read the announcement in the Startup Daily announcement or visit their website to learn more.

To celebrate the milestone for the team we thought we would ask them a few rapid-fire questions.

Why did you start Varicon?

"The construction industry has a dismal record with financial management, highlighted by a series of recent high profile insolvencies.

Complex projects are being managed using emails and Excel spreadsheets, exposing contractors to major financial risk, and providing very little visibility over project budgets.

Without cost-management tools like Varicon, contractors were going out of business because they were either misquoting projects (undercutting themselves before the job even started or over-budgeting and losing contracts to cheaper competitors) or mismanaging spending, and bleeding out during construction,” –James Baker, Co-founder at Varicon.

What is your vision for Varicon?

"We want Varicon to be synonymous with Construction Cost Management.  By democratising access to effective cost management solutions, we want every construction company to reach their full potential, regardless of their size or budget.” - Ofer Assor, Co-founder at Varicon.

For construction firms, how does Varicon save firms billions? 

"Varicon is designed to address two major loss areas. The first area is accurate forecasting, mitigating that mitigates construction inefficiencies and oversights of round things like labor resourcing requirements, poorly scheduled deliveries, and general budgeting miscalculations. 

The second is capturing data and managing unexpected costs that arise during construction, such as unforeseen hazard management, human error, and miscellaneous extra costs incurred as the job is being completed. 

By giving contractors the ability to see where they’re making or losing money, Varicon can save them billions of dollars every year, even with a very conservative estimate of a 2 percent overall cost reduction,” – James Baker, Co-founder at Varicon.

And finally, how has Galileo helped you on your journey?

Galileo’s major contribution to Varicon lies in them being an early believer and an advocate of Varicon.  

We have had the opportunity to work closely with James and Hugh over the past year, and they have always been available whenever we needed their guidance or support. In addition, Galileo introduced us to some great advisors (Galileo Coaches)like Shane Verner who has been instrumental in scaling our sales department. 

Galileo also guided us through our seed investment round, helping us refine our pitch and introducing us to their network of investors. 

Most importantly, Galileo is an active investor, which was exactly what we needed at an early stage.

If you’re a first-time founder looking to raise the first round - we want to hear from you! Apply today and we’ll aim to get back to you with real feedback from a real human. 💡  FUN FACT:  Our speed from term sheet to money in the bank 💰 only takes 10 days.