Dependbuild, the St. John's maker of cloud software that helps municipalities and infrastructure developers assess risks to construction projects, has been accepted into TechStars accelerator in Ohio State University in Columbus.

The accelerator for nascent companies offers a three-month program, USD$120,000, mentoring and access to an extensive network.

Dependbuild Chief Operating Officer Jean-Samuel Poirier told Entrevestor the $120,000 has extended the company's runway, although the team is still preparing to raise an undisclosed sum that will allow them to commit to R&D and add sales and marketing employees and a software developer to their three full-time, and one part-time staff.

The company, which was founded in the spring of 2021, is talking to VCs in the U.S. who are familiar with government-tech, which Poirier describes as a historically difficult area in which to raise money.

“Gov-tech requires relationship building, which takes time and has not been as VC-backable as some other industries,” he said. “But we are seeing a shift. There is more excitement in the VC community around gov-tech right now.”

Poirier said Dependbuild offers clients modernity and comprehensive ease of use.

“Municipalities and their staff are over-burdened and under-resourced and need assistance to ensure they are not overlooking large risks to project delivery," he said.

“Our platform is seeking to replicate the role that a consultant would play, taking in the context of the municipality, their projects, and associated project risks, and providing insights and recommendations to help ensure the project is successful, minimizing the number of change orders and oversights that lead to cost overruns, schedule delays and/or reduced scope that public projects often face.” 

Poirier said that “Techstars is playing an invaluable component in our go-to market efforts…We just completed "Mentor Madness" through the program, where we met with 40 or so founders, investors, product experts and more in what resembled a week of mentor speed-dating.

“This level of access is hard to come across in Atlantic Canada, and poses a huge opportunity for any East Coast startup to get the same level of access and/or opportunity that you would get in, say, Silicon Valley or NYC.” 

The company was also recently chosen by the city of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to join its living lab program to improve management of its infrastructure projects.

Poirier said that as well as planning fundraising, the company is working on a product release, coming in the next few weeks.

“We'll be launching a larger product release that will take this further and help municipalities save time in their day-to-day operations,” he said.