Google X Alum Flux Factory Raises $29M Series B

One of Google X’s former moonshots is raising cash as it looks to disrupt the architecture design space with its specialized collaborative data exchange service.

Flux Factory, Inc. announced $29 million in Series B funding co-led by Temasek and Surbana Jurong Private Limited. Far East Ventures, DFJ, South Park Ventures, Borealis Ventures, and Obvious Ventures also participated in the round. The company has raised $8 million to date from investors like Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.

Flux sees its worth in its ability to help the planet adapt. The company says that by 2050 there will be another two billion people living in cities on Earth. The company says its engineered architecture tools will help the world’s architects and builders attack problems in the most sustainable and efficient ways possible.

One item that is apparent from the list of investors joining this raise, is the heavily important role Flux sees in Asian markets as the SF-based company moves forward.

If the company sounds wildly ambitious, it may just be in its genes. Flux Factory was founded in late-2010 in the Google X Labs, where it was one of the company’s moonshot candidates before it was spun out into a distinct private venture.

The company’s first project is aimed at assisting architects and building professionals to save precious time when swapping files and making changes. The cloud-based collaboration service allows contractors, engineers and architects to add helpful plugins into their existing work flows and saves them crucial time in simplifying file transfer, data conversion, and data-merge.

The company details the process more in a press release.

Until now, sharing and executing new ideas across the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) value chain have been hindered by cumbersome interoperability among the numerous software applications used during a project lifecycle. Low value tasks such as merging changes or converting data takes significant time from the creative work. In contrast, Flux provides seamless data exchange between industry design tools such as Rhino and Revit.

Flux is currently building up its support for some of the most popular pieces of design software. It currently is compatible with programs like Grasshopper, Excel, and Dynamo and is looking to add support in early 2016 for popular tools like Revit, AutoCAD, 3ds Max and SketchUp.

“Collaboration tools are critical infrastructure elements to address the urgent need for affordable and sustainable buildings for an urbanizing world,” said Nicholas Chim, Flux’s co-Founder, in a statement. “Our industry needs to work together to develop new methodologies to meet this demand, while minimizing our usage of energy, water, and extracted resources.”

In addition to the funding news, Flux announced that Nina Yang, COO of Singbridge, will join the Flux board of directors.

Comments

What is your preferred smartphone screen size

Screen envy. We all have it. Or do we? See, that’s the thing, I’m just not so sure. One thing I am sure about is that our phone screens have gotten progressively bigger and bigger over the last few years. The funny thing is, we as a society have taken that ball and run with it, like we just don’t care. But I always thought we did care? Some time ago, when phones were in the sub-5” range, we used to have a term called “phablet” which described an almost absurdly big phone. The definition varied from person to person. I always considered a phone with a screen 5.5” or bigger to be a phablet. The Galaxy Note fell into that category. The Lumia 1520 certainly did. There are others as well. I was safely ensconced in the 4.5” area at the time with my Lumia 920. What did I know? Leon’s getting laaaaaaaarrrger But slowly, phones started topping the 5” mark. I’m not talking about phablets here, I’m talking about normal flagship phones – the Galaxy S4 (barely) and the HTC One (M7) are ...

Facebook Now Supports PGP To Send You Encrypted Emails

You can now instruct Facebook to encrypt every email it sends to you so nobody — not even the NSA — is likely to be able to read your messages anytime soon. All you have to do is import your public PGP key into your Facebook settings and you’re good to go. The problem here, of course, is that most people have no idea how public/private key email encryption works and how to even get started with it. In the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks, a number of organizations, including Google, promised to completely hide the complexities of end-to-end email encryption from regular users. Very few of these products have materialized so far, however — not for lack of trying, but because this is actually a very complex problem, both from a technical and user experience perspective. Facebook uses the well-established PGP scheme (the GNU Privacy Guard implementation of OpenPGP, to be precise) to encrypt messages and tools lik...

Best Web Design Company in Pondicherry

#Technology has two faces. We all feel it, but sometimes can’t find words to describe it. #Ebooks are the best example to show the 0-1 nature of emotions the #technology evokes. #itwhere provide a #Best #solutions to #Growyourbusiness feel free to drop a #Mail info@itwheretech.co.in www.itwheretech.co.in

Facebook will verify the location of U.S. election ad buyers by mailing them postcards

Facebook’s global director of policy programs says it will start sending postcards by snail mail to verify buyers of ads related to United States elections. Katie Harbath, who described the plan at a conference held by the National Association of Secretaries of State this weekend, didn’t reveal when the program will start, but told Reuters that it would be before the Congressional midterm elections in November. The cards will be sent to people who want to purchase ads that mention candidates running for federal offices, but not issue-based political ads, Harbath said, and contain a code that buyers need to enter to verify that they are in the U.S. The program is similar to ones used by Google My Business and Nextdoor when they need to verify business owners or users who want to join closed neighborhood groups, respectively. Harbath told Reuters that the postcards “won’t solve everything,” but were the most effective method the company came up with to prevent people from using fa...

eGym raises $45M Series C for cloud-connected gym equipment and fitness software

eGym , the Munich-based startup that offers cloud-connected gym equipment and supporting cloud software and app for the fitness training floor, has closed $45 million in Series C funding. The round was led by new investor HPE Growth Capital, while existing investors, including Highland Europe, also participated. The problem that eGym is looking to solve is that, whilst gyms have moved from a bodybuilder market to a mass market in the last 20 years, the technology in gyms lags behind. That’s despite the fact that better use of technology can help to reduce customer churn, the biggest pain-point of both gym operator and gym users. Comprising of an app for both gym user and trainer, combined with the company’s connected strength machines, the eGym Cloud makes it possible for gym members to receive better fitness instruction and an evolving and personalised fitness plan based on data collected as they workout. And by providing a better workout feedback loop, gym goers can get an i...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog