California start-up Bedrock Robotics has emerged from stealth with $80m in seed and series A funding as it seeks to bring autonomous technology to the construction industry.

Founded by ex-Waymo leaders, the goal is to add autonomous technology to heavy machinery to address America’s building crisis as demand for new infrastructure surges.

The company developing autonomous systems for the $13tn global construction industry. Rather than design and sell costly new machinery, Bedrock upgrades existing heavy equipment fleets with reversible, same-day hardware and software installs to enable fully autonomous operations.

The technology bridges the expanding gap between rapidly rising domestic infrastructure needs and shrinking workforce capacity.

Founded by three former Waymo leaders – including the former head of its trucking programme – and a fourth co-founder who previously led teams at Segment, the Bedrock team brings 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 the cost, scheduling, safety and predictability of labour-intensive projects. Laurent Hautefeuille, previous EVP at Uber Freight responsible for building the business from inception to $5bn 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 construction sites in Arizona, Texas and Arkansas.

“The construction industry is facing so much pressure with the soaring demand for new factories and data centres, the housing crisis, and the mandate for re-industrialisation in the USA,” said Boris Sofman, CEO and co-founder of Bedrock Robotics. “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.”

The latest funding rounds, series A led by 8VC (www.8vc.com) and seed led by Eclipse (eclipse.capital), should help Bedrock grow its engineering, operations and commercialisation teams, and deepen partnerships to reach its target of initial operator-less deployment in 2026.

Companies such as Sundt Construction (www.sundt.com), a Phoenix-based general contractor with whom Bedrock collaborates closely on field testing and product improvements, are looking for ways to expand operational capacity.

“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,” said Eric Cylwik, director at Sundt Construction. “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 (bedrockrobotics.com) has also recently teamed with three Texas firms, Zachry Construction (www.zachryconstructioncorp.com), Champion Site Prep (www.idigdirt.com) and Capitol Aggregates (www.capitolaggregates.com).