AI Software Startup gets into DFMA

Brief 

Slate Technologies, a maker of construction software platforms leveraging artificial intelligence, is looking to wade into industrialized construction with its acquisition of Splash Modular. Splash specializes in streamlining parametric design data by connecting construction design teams with stakeholders in manufacturing, assembly and the supply chain.

Insight

Slate Technologies, a Pleasanton, Cal.-based artificial intelligence (AI) software platform for the construction industry, announced in late April 2022 its acquisition of Splash Modular, a North Carolina-based software designer for the industrialized construction & design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA).

As a result of the acquisition, Splash will operate as part of Slate Technologies.Splash was built specifically to facilitate industrialized construction (IC). Its software connects design teams in the construction process with the manufacturing, assembly and supply chain stakeholders, bringing all data into a parametric design file.

This helps general contractors identify, integrate, and manage IC solutions and suppliers while reducing the cost and risk of projects, decreasing building time, and improving quality.

Slate in March launched a digital assistant for the construction industry, leveraging AI and machine learning to help contractors and designers make better decisions based on multiple criteria from throughout the business.

Splash focused its efforts on industrialized construction (IR), which goes beyond offsite or modular fabrication of portions of a project, bringing to bear industrial engineering principles, standardized design and automation.

Splash came to market with its software tool, RIVEIA, a cloud-based BIM-integrated software platform and marketplace bridging data flow between pre-construction, offsite construction facilities and supply chain partners.

The software facilities innovative approaches to construction including mass customization and autonomous project delivery through a two-way data flow between project stakeholders to ensure constructability and manufacturability.

Former Splash Modular CEO and current Slate Technologies Vice President and Head of Industrialized Construction Joel Hutchines briefed ForConstructionPros in the days after the announcement. He relayed out Splash Modular had had about four employees and the combined Slate Technologies now employs 50, and is just coming out of stealth mode.