Construction's Billion-Dollar Paper Trail Problem

01 /The Concept

Kraaft built what it calls "WhatsApp for construction."

The app lets project managers and site supervisors exchange messages and documents while keeping a real-time grip on what's actually happening on the job site.

One of the core mechanisms: workers photograph progress and post it to a project chat. Every photo taken through the app captures GPS coordinates and a timestamp, generating a verifiable record of work completed. That's fine for tactical oversight in the moment – but scrolling back through a chat to reconstruct a coherent picture of progress is a hassle. So the platform automatically compiles everything posted to a given project into daily reports, either as documents or spreadsheets, using built-in templates or custom forms the team can define themselves.

All project documentation – plans, permits, work orders – can be uploaded to a dedicated repository, keeping it accessible to foremen on-site rather than buried in someone's inbox.

Pricing starts at $20 per user per month. Larger customers can negotiate enterprise arrangements that add integrations with project management systems, multi-team administration, and digitization of paper records.

Kraaft is headquartered in France. The app launched in 2020, and by 2021 the startup had narrowed its focus exclusively to construction. Since then it has signed roughly 1,000 construction companies across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and French-speaking West Africa.

The company raised €3.2M in 2023, reached operating profitability by late 2024, and has now closed a €13M round to fund expansion into English-speaking markets – the US, UK, and Ireland. As the founder puts it, they could keep growing without outside capital, but this is the moment to move.

02 /Why It Matters

Construction is a $13 trillion industry representing roughly 7% of global GDP. Yet over the past 20 years, digitization has barely made a dent: IT spending in construction sits at 1–2% of sector revenue, compared to 3–5% in most other industries. That gap is partly explained by the digital literacy of the average construction worker and partly by the absence of tools simple enough for them to actually use. Kraaft is betting on the latter. According to the founder, even basic digital tools like theirs improve manageability and productivity for clients by an average of 15%.

The founder also notes that three years ago they felt ahead of the market. Now the sector is heating up – which is precisely why the timing of this raise matters.

A similar philosophy drives CompanyCam ([related review](/review/luchshe-tysjachi-slov)), which lets clients and managers monitor renovation work through a real-time photo feed – closer in spirit to Instagram than to a project management suite. That startup raised $38M. Synco ([related review](/review/prosto-vzjat-i-prisposobit)) puts the chat interface front and center, with photo attachments, for property maintenance teams managing apartment buildings, offices, and hotels; it raised $5.5M in its first round in 2023. Snapfix ([related review](/review/novye-shablony)) applies the same chat-photo-report model to both real estate and industrial facilities, including equipment maintenance, and raised €3.25M.

03 /Opportunities

The broader play here is building simple mobile apps for "old-economy" industries whose workforces aren't sitting at desks and aren't used to complex software. The bar is roughly WhatsApp, Instagram, or TikTok – anything steeper and adoption stalls.

Construction and property maintenance are obvious starting points, but industrial workers are another large and underserved segment. Workers who operate complex equipment need tools that increase their productivity and keep valuable machinery from breaking down – and those tools need to meet them where they are.

Squint ([related review](/review/700-millionov-chelovek-kotorym-obychnye-platformy-ne-podojdut)) went full TikTok on the factory floor: point a phone at a machine and get a series of short instructional videos on how to complete whatever task is needed. It raised $19M. Zaptic ([related review](/review/programmirovat-nuzhno-ne-kompjutery-a-ljudej)) took a similar approach to troubleshooting industrial equipment and also raised $19M. DeepHow ([related review](/review/63-milliarda-dollarov-na-700-millionov-uchenikov)) adds the ability to create "engaging" video content on the platform – which genuinely makes the concept feel like a TikTok for the shop floor – and raised $37.1M.

The question worth sitting with: for which "analog" industry could you build the production equivalent of WhatsApp, Instagram, or TikTok?