Built Launches Budget Management, Payables Tools for Real Estate Owners

Built has expanded its construction and real estate finance platform to meet the needs of real estate owners and developers.

The platform now helps these professionals manage budgets, streamline invoicing and compliance, move money and make decisions, Built said in a Monday (March 11) press release.

“One of the primary reasons we started Built was to improve how money flows through the construction industry,” Chase Gilbert, CEO of Built, said in the release. “We knew lenders were an important starting point given their influence and connectivity to owners, but our goal has always been to ‘follow the money’ downstream.”

With its latest expansion, Built provides owners and developers with the same sort of automation and transparency it already delivers to the key decision makers and managers of projects, according to the release.

The platform now integrates budget management; compliance and payables workflow; and draw requests, the release said. It also features vendor management and embedded payments to help complete development deals on time and within budget.

In addition, Built’s relationships with nearly 300 bank and non-bank lenders enables it to understand owners’ needs, facilitate the exchange of information and streamline lending the can help projects move forward, per the release.

This offering will contribute to a shift in real estate development and construction management, Josh Raffaelli, managing partner at Brookfield Growth and an investor in Built, said in the release.

“Built’s innovative approach to unify all project participants on a single platform not only streamlines communication and accountability, but also unlocks faster money movement down the value chain,” Raffaelli said.

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that construction firms are adding technology to accelerate payments, reduce financing costs and streamline back-office processes.

For example, some are accepting electronic payments, with 79% of those who have done so reporting that this change has helped them get paid faster, according to “Building Better Cash Flow in Construction with Digital Payments,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and American Express collaboration.

In another recent development in this space, Handle.com said Wednesday (March 6) that it secured investments for its software that streamlines payments and credit solutions in the construction industry. With the new investment, Handle.com aims to broaden its footprint across the industry.