Dive Brief:
- As the construction industry continues to struggle with poor data visibility and silos, contech giant Autodesk has finalized its acquisition of Rhumbix, a company that focuses on collecting accurate jobsite data across timekeeping, labor and payroll, according to a Tuesday post from Sidharth Haksar, Autodesk’s vice president and head of construction strategy and partnerships.
- The deal will support Autodesk’s broader effort to connect processes across the entire lifecycle of a construction project from planning, design and execution, per Haksar. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
- Rhumbix doesn’t anticipate any changes to its products, service offerings or customer support, according to a company announcement. The firm counts Turner Construction, Suffolk Construction and DPR Construction, which refined the solution on its jobsites, among its customers, according to its website.
Dive Insight:
Autodesk finalized the transaction after it reached a definitive agreement to acquire San Francisco-based Rhumbix last week. Before the acquisition, Autodesk led an $8 million funding round for Rhumbix in 2024.
Haksar emphasized that the issue with construction’s data usage isn’t the wholesale lack of it, but rather the quality, which can be messy, inaccurate and inefficient. Rhumbix’s offering will help Autodesk provide a product that can streamline payroll, project controls and reporting processes.
Rhumbix’s platform allows contractors to enter information across these functions through its mobile app and field forms, eliminating the emphasis on paper data collection. Once entered, builders can access the data in real time.
Indeed, contractors across the industry are continuing to use their proprietary data for functions that range from safety management to artificial intelligence adoption. But a lack of clean, organized data has been a massive thorn in their sides, which prevents them from leveraging robotics and other advanced tech on the jobsite.
To rectify that problem, Rhumbix offers solutions to track timekeeping and attendance, daily reports, compliance and health and safety reporting, according to its website.
With the acquisition, Autodesk will use Rhumbix’s platform to deliver more accurate and timely cost tracking, better forecasting, earlier risk detection and stronger documentation for change orders, according to Haksar’s post.
Rhumbix plans to combine its resource management capabilities more tightly with Autodesk’s construction platform, which includes workflows across cost management, scheduling, estimating and planning, per the firm’s announcement of the news.
“Rhumbix has been focused on helping construction teams capture reliable jobsite data as work happens,” Zach Scheel, co-founder and CEO of Rhumbix, said in Haksar’s post. “We believe that, in partnership with Autodesk, there is a powerful opportunity to further connect real-time field data with broader project workflows, and support more complete visibility across the project lifecycle.”
The construction industry has been a lightning rod for M&A activity over the past year, with no signs of slowing down.
Indeed, Autodesk’s acquisition isn’t the only recent move in the contech M&A space. In January, contech giant Procore acquired Datagrid, a vertical AI firm that offers AI agents for contractors. Prior to that, project management tech firm Buildots acquired Genda, a workforce and safety management platform.
