Pillar, an Italian fintech start-up engaged in developing solutions to digitise the economic and financial management of construction companies, has announced that it has closed a €3.2 million pre-seed round. The round was led by Emblem, a French fund specialising in pre-seed investments. which has invested in major global scaleups such as Lovable, the Swedish vibe coding platform, which develops software using artificial intelligence tools. International VCs such as Pareto (USA), Plug and Play (USA) and Kima Ventures (France) also participated, as did Italian VCs such as B Heroes, Vento, Eden Ventures and IAG, as well as a group of prominent entrepreneurs on the international and national tech scene, including the founders of Aria, Convelio, Mobile First Company, 1000farmacie, Sibill, Futura and Lexroom, and business angels such as Paola Bonomo, Ignazio Rocco Da Torrepadula, Enrico Pandian and many others.
Pillar is the only software that allows construction companies to know exactly where their money is going and to monitor revenues, expenses and margins in real time, both for the company as a whole and for individual construction sites. The simple and intuitive platform uses artificial intelligence to automate checks, automatically reconcile bank transactions and identify anomalies before they become real problems.
Pillar was born from the experience of three founders with a solid background in tech and start-ups both in Italy and abroad, with the aim of innovating a key sector for the Italian and European economy, namely construction, which is still characterised by traditional processes and operational inefficiencies. Construction is one of the pillars of the Italian economy: in 2023, the sector accounted for 11.4% of national GDP and contributed alone to about one-third of GDP growth in the last two years (source: Bank of Italy, Annual Report 2024). However, the adoption of advanced technologies is still limited: according to Censis, only 20% of construction companies use software for site management, while around 60% have not yet adopted digital solutions. The founders of Pillar, Gabriel Guinea Montalvo, Paolo Tarsia Incuria and Lorenzo Demaio (pictured), have experienced first-hand this gap between the complexity of economic management in construction and the potential of fintech technologies, deciding to develop tailor-made software for construction companies.
The Pillar platform allows construction companies to monitor business and site costs without manual intervention, providing a constantly updated overview of margins. Its distinctive feature is its ability to integrate data from different sources, from tax records to current accounts, and to automatically collect information generated on site, such as delivery notes, hours worked, work carried out and progress reports, thanks to the development of AI assistants on WhatsApp.
Since its public launch, Pillar has already received a significant response from the market, with more than 100 corporate clients, over 350 construction sites managed, more than 500 workers monitored and over 40,000 invoices processed. The team now has more than 15 members. With the capital raised, the start-up will accelerate product development and its go-to-market strategy, strengthening the team with new resources to scale successfully.
“This investment, one of the highest valuations ever recorded for a pre-seed in Italy, is an important sign of confidence that confirms the attractiveness and potential of our solution in a traditional and poorly digitised market such as the Italian construction industry,” said CEO Gabriel Guinea Montalvo in a statement. “The participation of international investors such as Emblem, which has already demonstrated its ability to bet on successful start-ups such as Lovable, underlines the value of our vision.”
The construction sector is a huge industry that is experiencing a strong recovery in terms of digitalisation, driven by generational change, the search for greater efficiency and the need to deal with an increasingly complex regulatory environment. It is a fertile ground for mobile applications and artificial intelligence solutions, but at the same time it represents a challenge for software providers because it is fragmented and requires a deep understanding of end users in order to build an effective go-to-market strategy. To meet the challenge of innovating this sector, we chose to focus on the Pillar team for its skills and characteristics, similar to those we have seen in many successful teams,” says Guillaume Durao, general partner at Emblem.
Pillar aims to establish itself as a European fintech player in the construction industry, building an ecosystem for the financial and administrative management of construction companies. The company aims to reach 2,500 companies by 2027 and expand its team to 30 members by 2027.
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