Thursday, 9 March 2023

Croatian-Austrian Startup PlanRadar Making History in Tasmania

March the 9th, 2023 - The Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar is making waves on the other side of the world, with the digitalisation of the largest infrastructure project in Tasmanian history.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar, a company whose eponymous cloud platform has been designed to digitise construction processes, has been selected as the software supplier for the 786 million Australian dollars (500.45 million euros) Bridgewater Bridge project over the Derwent River in Australia.

The work of building the bridge is being managed by Burbury Consulting, and it is the largest infrastructural transport project in the entire history of Tasmania.

It's interesting to note, as they pointed out from PlanRadar itself, that the Peljesac bridge project right here in Croatia was one of their main references for getting this job in distant Australia. Domagoj Dolinsek, the founder of the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar, explained that this is their biggest project in Australia so far, and also one of the biggest in the world.

A strategic step forward

"We've been present in Australia for a year, and with last year's investment in our company of 69 million US dollars, a stronger exit from the European market to the global market, primarily North America, the Middle East and Australia, was made possible," explained Dolinsek.

The new Bridgewater Bridge project will use PlanRadar to manage all of its various inspections, quality assessments, task management, construction documentation, site audits and other key aspects of construction project management. PlanRadar pointed out that they are a leading player in this particular industry with over 120,000 clients in their global base using their property and construction project management software platform, and this is their first infrastructure mega-project in Australia.

“PlanRadar has previously been used in similar infrastructure projects across Europe, notably in the case of Peljesac Bridge, one of Europe's largest construction projects, along with its surrounding network of roads and tunnels. The Peljesac Bridge project is still one of the largest mega infrastructure projects in southern Croatia, with a total value of 550 million euros,'' they stated.

Bart Crowther, the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar's regional manager for Australia emphasised the importance of this project for their future presence in that part of the world. "The opportunity to work on any infrastructure project of this scale is truly extraordinary, and the positive impact on the Tasmanian community, both for the 22,000 daily users of the future bridge and for the improvement of freight and logistics routes on it, is extremely important to us. We're looking forward to working with the Tasmanian Government and the Burbury Consulting teams and helping guide their day-to-day ongoing site inspection processes,” Crowther said. A Burbury Consulting representative said PlanRadar was chosen for this project because of its data-driven reporting capabilities.

"When it came time to choose our project inspection software, we unanimously chose PlanRadar because of their ease of use and incredibly detailed data-driven reporting capabilities that help us better manage timely reporting, inspections, audits and verifications," it was stated.

Otherwise, this new Bridgewater Bridge will replace the existing 75-year-old cable-span bridge and will have a length of one kilometre in total. The main works on the bridge started last year, and it is estimated that it will be completed in 2024. The river crossing between Bridgewater and Granton in Tasmania has a long history and the first bridge was opened in 1848.

The existing Bridgewater Bridge was built back in 1946 and is the fourth bridge at this location, but the planning to replace this bridge began over 20 years ago, with many different designs and plans developed over that time, and the current project was completed and finally approved in 2018. The Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar, born from the idea of builder and founder Domagoj Dolinsek, enables the management of all construction documentation via mobile phones, tablets and computers, and is used in both the construction industry and on the real estate market.

By digitising the workflow, PlanRadar reduces the frequency of what could be costly and frustrating errors, saves time for all parties involved and enables huge efficiency gains: users report saving an average of seven working hours every week.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

Sunday, 23 January 2022

Croatian-Austrian Startup PlanRadar Eyes Global Expansion

January the 23rd, 2022 - The Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar has made quite the impression on investors, and they're now eyeing global expansion.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marina Bilus writes, the founder of the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar has stated that it is absolutely imperative for them that companies work globally with their application and that through such a presence, they continue to bring the greatest value to the industry in which they operate. They claim to want to be the trigger for true change by transforming construction sites across the world.

The founder of the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar, Domagoj Dolinsek, summarised their ambitions, revealing for the first time that PlanRadar is embarking on a new round of raising fresh capital to continue on its path of global expansion, this time targeting primarily distant markets such as that of Australia and those of the Middle East.

Just a couple of months or so after revealing that, Dolinsek and his team achieved their goal by securing an impressive 69 million US dollars in Series B investments.

That investment line-up is led by Insight Partners and Quadrille Capital, and the existing investor Cavalary Ventures, as well as Headline, Berliner Volksbank Ventures and aws Gründerfonds, and Proptech1, Russmedia and GR Capital have also invested in this impressive company. The capital entrusted to PlanRadar will also serve to double their team in just one year and to increase the number of employees by as many as 200.

After the news of the exceptional success of this round of funding was officially announced, the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar specified that their global expansion would include the opening of new offices in the USA, Australia, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Southeast Asia and Latin America.

"We'll encourage investment in the R&D department, create a new technology hub and form a team of product innovation experts to create new technology solutions for the SaaS platform that sets new industry standards," they explained from PlanRadar, adding that in just 18 months, from a previous 30 million US dollar investment, their revenue swelled by a massive 250 percent and their number of beneficiaries doubled.

Their platform, which brings together a wealth of site workflow data and structures it to make it instantly available to any construction project participant through a single mobile app, is used daily by 100,000 professionals in more than 60 countries around the world.

"Our mission is to facilitate construction work and property management and we've proven that there is a huge global appetite for our technology," said Ibrahim Imam, one of the co-founders of PlanRadar, while fellow co-founder Sander van de Rijdt added that the global PropTech is transforming an industry that has historically been reluctant to digitise.

“The PropTech sector is poised for tremendous growth, and the Croatian-Austrian startup PlanRadar is bringing the global construction and real estate industries into the digital future. The sustainable growth that PlanRadar has achieved is proof of their professional work and commitment. We immediately saw their potential, and their team continued to impress us with their commitment to growing customers, revenue and talent,'' said Thomas Krane, the CEO of Insight Partners.

"We're delighted to continue to encourage the rapid growth of PlanRadar and join the group of investors. We're extremely impressed with the technology, the team and the way it is helping to digitise the construction industry and the real estate sector,'' said Brice Delome, a partner at Quadrille Capital.

When Dolinsek revealed how they managed to transform the otherwise traditional construction industry into something more digital, he stated their formula for success - a user friendly application that, he claims, is simple for everyone who uses it, while at its heart has a huge anount of technological "machinery" that unites all complex compounds into a meaningful whole that is easy to manage via an app.

“Construction sites are quite complicated systems, and people associated with them often project this complexity through their way of working. But the trick is that by simply using the technological solution provided by PlanRadar, we eliminate the complexity of their workflow so that they work more simply, become more efficient and thus improve the sustainability and success of their projects,'' explained the head of PlanRadar.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

Tuesday, 24 August 2021

PlanRadar Closer to Total Digitalisation of Croatian Construction Site Work

August the 24th, 2021 - The PlanRadar platform is one step closer to solving the issue of endless amounts of paper and pens on Croatian construction sites, bringing it all onto a screen and as such, into one place.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Bojan Petkovic, the director of PlanRadar for Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia stated that ''we're one step closer to abandoning large and inconspicuous paper reports and the complete digitalisation of work on construction sites, especially in the area of ​​data exchange and processing.''

That's how Petkovic described the new opportunity that this Croatian-Austrian startup offers to the users of its software platform, with Croatian construction sites hopefully abandoning endless amounts of paperwork.

As they announced, PlanRadar has introduced a new, extremely important feature in its solution - Digital Project Reports, which further facilitates the collection of data from construction sites and enables them to use data even more efficiently within the application itself.

As explained from this company, which currently has more than 13,000 users across more than 55 countries, thanks to Digital Project Reports, users and subcontractors can now import PDF reports into the PlanRadar platform and easily collect data from various construction sites by using existing forms and importing data. These reports can be searched or new reports can be created based on them.

“Our users use many different, pre-defined reports to respond to the reporting needs of the relevant institutions or their partners and investors, such as a construction log. In order to further facilitate and speed up the process of collecting information and reporting, we decided to go one step further and after creating digital report forms that are available with just one click within the PlanRadar application, enable the import of data from existing PDF forms through project reports,'' explained Petkovic.

It's worth mentioning that the PlanRadar platform has pointed out that by digitalising these work processes in construction, they're working to further reduce the frequency of errors, save time and enable a significant increase in efficiency. This will likely be of enormous benefit to Croatian construction sites, especially as the post-earthquake reconstruction of Zagreb, Petrinja, Sisak, Glina and elsewhere gets underway.

For more, follow our business section.

Friday, 18 December 2020

PlanRadar Croatia: 20 Million People Access App Daily

December the 18th, 2020 - PlanRadar Croatia has done well despite the ongoing coronavirus crisis as the world turns more towards digitalisation. This Croatian company developed software for digital documentation in the construction industry, and it expects excellent growth by the end of 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, PlanRadar Croatia, the company that developed the software for digital documentation and communication in the construction industry, expects annual growth of 100 percent in 2020 despite the pandemic.

PlanRadar Croatia's software is used within more than 25,000 projects around the world, including some of the most important here in Croatia, such as the construction of the Peljesac Bridge and its accompanying access roads as well as the continuation of the construction of the Istrian Y. During 2020, the number of users of the PlanRadar Croatia application has grown, they say, to more than 10,000, and now every week 80,000 users worldwide process projects with it.

“The coronavirus crisis has made it clear to our clients how useful and effective the use of digital tools is. Access to our solution increased from 12 million per day in early March, to 14 million in mid-April. Now the daily rate is more than 20 million visits. With the successful completion of the round of financing with more than 30 million euros in March this year, we have enough capital to further strengthen our presence on existing markets and expand our teams to new locations,'' said Bojan Petkovic, the director of PlanRadar Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia.

He added that during the year, PlanRadar, in addition to having representative offices in the European capitals of Zagreb and London, as well as a headquarters in Vienna, opened representative offices in Moscow, Warsaw, Stockholm, Paris, Bolzano, Bucharest, Madrid and Amsterdam, which resulted in an increase in employees to 150.

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