“You are the missing piece.” With this slogan five global players of the construction industry invite all entrepreneurs worldwide with innovative construction solutions to participate in this year’s edition of the Construction Startup Competition. Startups willing to play a crucial role in the transformation of the construction industry are asked to submit their projects by July 26, 2020.

Hilti, CEMEX Ventures, Ferrovial, VINCI Group’s Leonard, and NOVA by Saint-Gobain come together for the 2020 Construction Startup Competition to add their weight behind startups breaking the paradigm of one of the least digitized and most fragmented industries. They will join their expertise and resources to boost startups with their knowledge of infrastructure, materials, and equipment, among other disciplines.

The winners will be evaluated on five areas of opportunity within the industry: smart and sustainable cities and buildings, digital solutions for project and jobsite management, optimization of supply chain management, construction with innovative materials or methods, and optimization of productivity, efficiency, and quality in daily project management.

Those interested in participating can apply through CEMEX Ventures’ webpage (https://www.cemexventures.com/startup-competition-2020/). Once the five host companies have evaluated all proposals, they will engage the most promising startups with a further set of opportunities, from workshops to pilots or investments. In this fourth edition of the Construction Startup Competition, the finalist startups will be invited to Chicago to present their solutions to an audience composed of global leaders in innovation, investment, and construction, on December 2-3, 2020.

The global presence of the five host corporations allows startups from anywhere in the world to participate in the competition, giving them the opportunity to scale and expand their business to new geographic markets. The position these five leaders occupy within the construction value chain provides the participants with wide visibility of the challenges that the industry faces, as well as access to an active portfolio of important contacts. These factors help build connections to new investors and companies focused on innovation. Moreover, the competition offers participants the possibility of testing and implementing their solutions with any of the five host companies.

The great growth of past editions—where the number of applicants skyrocketed from year to year—helped to develop an ecosystem of over a thousand startups from over 80 countries focused on the construction industry. The 2020 Construction Startup Competition aims to complete a vision of new emerging solutions in the industry, facilitate an efficient review of investment opportunities, and create a community of players committed to solving the industry’s challenges from an innovative, technological, and sustainable point of view.