• Neeral Shah says Yardlink has served 10,000 projects to date
• Platform offers construction sites tools, bulk materials and waste management
• The UK construction market is worth £50bn

Construction is one of the largest industries in the world but with so little disruption, things have largely stayed the same.

The industry has dragged its feet when it comes to entering the digital age, and the $1trillion supply chain business is largely conducted over the phone, by email and even pen and paper.

It means there is ample opportunity for change.

Canadian Neeral Shah was exposed to some the challenges in the industry after a stint working at his family’s manufacturing business across Asia, sourcing and financing heavy equipment and raw materials for construction buyers across the world. 

He left the business after seven years, moving to London to work for a pet start-up, building a digital marketplace. It was there that the idea for Yardlink first came about.

‘I became a student of marketplaces. The whole model of Uber and Airbnb connecting two parties… It was a lightbulb moment,’ says Shah. 

‘I thought there had to be some connection between the construction supply chain and the concept of digital marketplace. I had the idea and ran with it.’

Six months later, Yardlink launched in 2018.

At the core of its offering, Yardlink claims to offer a way for construction companies to obtain equipment much faster than normal rental companies.

‘When it comes to construction projects there are lots of different stakeholders. 

‘There’s a contractor at the top and they’re coordinating the project with dozens of contractors. That’s where things become complex. 

‘No two projects are the same – you can’t copy and paste them,’ says Shah.

‘Everything is an unknown. You might start digging, hit a cable and the whole project is thrown off course. 

‘We help to coordinate the main contractors and subcontractors and make sure they get what they want, whether its materials or equipment, on time.’

One of the biggest problems for suppliers is a lack of inventory or vehicles to transport the goods, meaning they are unable to complete orders. 

It is a vicious cycle in which construction sites battle constant delays, with companies often pushed to use expensive suppliers miles and miles away.

‘Without a Yardlink, when companies are thinking about hiring a digger or buying in concrete, they’ll call five/ten suppliers and ask for availability. This can take hours, sometimes days, and most likely the answer is no.

‘A customer can come to us and immediately they have access to the entire supply chain for the UK. 

‘Where something might have taken four weeks, we can get that down to the next day. That’s super critical construction.’

What started as a rental company has now transformed into a full supply chain management platform, giving contractors access to the suppliers of tools, equipment, fuel, waste management and other services. 

All of it can be sourced and booked via its platform.

A new generation of buyers open to tech

There is plenty of opportunity for Yardlink to make a mark on an industry that is a digital laggard.

‘The manufacturing industry has adopted and digitised to a certain extent. If construction were to catch up, it would unlock £1.6trillion a year. There’s huge appetite in the market,’ Shah says. 

So why has the construction industry remained so averse to digitialisation and why has there been so little disruption?

‘There are a few areas where it’s been really hard to adopt technology. One is that you can’t copy and paste projects. Every project is different so it’s hard to create a plan and stick to it.

‘We’re not the first to try this, but I think now is the right time. We’ve got this new generation of buyers coming into the market at these construction businesses. 

‘In their private lives, they’re using Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, so Yardlink is a familiar concept even though it’s maybe not familiar to construction as a whole.

‘That’s a huge generational shift. We striking the iron while it’s hot… if there’s new technology that can come in and make things cheaper, faster, easier, then construction businesses are all for it.’

The industry is in need of all the help it can get at the minute, following the disruption caused by Brexit and the pandemic.

‘Brexit has been a big one – supply chain disruption has definitely happened there. Then just in general with inflation where it is, material costs have gone through the roof. 

‘When you’re a contractor tendering and you’re promising a price to a developer and over the course of the project, your raw materials go up significantly, it’s very hard to stick to your budget so they’re being really squeezed in terms of profits.’

Yardlink has seen an uptick in interest in recent months, according to Shah. It is now working with 500 businesses, with 3,000 customers – and claims to have served 10,000 projects to date.

How will construction fare this year?

The construction industry is facing considerable headwinds with fewer projects in the market, and a shift out of London, but Shah remains optimistic.

‘There’s a catch up in terms of commercial space with people coming back to the office to an extent. You’re seeing a lot of projects by foreign companies building a headquarters here.

‘It’s a tough year, but if I think about where we stand, supply chains are going to be even tougher than they’ve ever been.

‘The rising costs and the rise in credit risk mean a lot of suppliers are going of business because they’re not being paid on time. From a customer perspective its getting that much harder to source whatever you need on site.

‘It’s an opportune time for Yardlink to be in the market, we’ve got these customers who need these goods right away but cant get them and we’re basically there to fill the gap.’

There’s no signs of Yardlink slowing down anytime soon, after securing a $17.5million Series A funding round, led by Beringea, at the end of 2022.

‘There’s a £50billion market in the UK alone in construction. We’ve this huge market to go after… financial offerings, getting suppliers paid faster, supplying financing for customers….’

There is also talk of launching the platform across Western Europe, and eventually North America.

This is part of our new series looking at companies disrupting sectors which have historically lacked innovation.

We’ll look at some of the most exciting companies in industries we encounter on a day-to-day basis who want to do things a bit differently.