CutStruct Raises over $600,000 to Create Construction Procurement Platform

Dike Onwuamaeze

CutStruct Technology has raised $600,000 (over N265.896 million) to build its premier product, LiveVend, which is a construction procurement platform that would enable real estate developers to engage vetted vendors on a simple and transparent platform. Subscribers to the LiveVend platform would also enjoy other services like transportation, goods-in-transit insurance and trade credit which is offered by Sterling Banks’ buy-now, pay-later product that is called “Specta for Business.”

CutStruct Technology was coined from “cutting cost in construction using technology,” which summed up the mission of the company with a focus on Africa and other emerging markets.
LiveVend is the company’s flagship product that has on boarded well over 100 vendors that included major construction materials manufacturers.

The Chief Executive Officer of CutStruct, Mr. John Oamen, said the platform would, “connect construction vendors to buyers. All the complex work takes place in the background. The vendor vetting, sorting out the appropriate logistics, ensuring the goods are insured, guaranteeing fulfillment and securing financing – these are the complex things we do in the background, while our users engage with a simple platform.”

Similarly, the Chief Strategy Officer of CutStruct, Mr. Tayo Odunsi, emphasised that the platform was free to use for buyers and they could also access weekly pricing data of major building materials across major locations in Nigeria.

The CutStruct created the LiveVend solution in partnership with best-in-class solution providers, which included Axa Mansard for insurance, Sterling Bank for construction materials financing, Apel Trustees for escrow service, VerifyMe for vendor verification and Greychapel Legal for all legal and deal structuring.
A Partner at DFS Lab, Mr. Stephen Deng, said: “We invested in John, Tayo and the Cutstruct team because we also believe in the untapped potential within the construction vertical in Nigeria and across Africa.

“We believe tech-enhanced, specialised B2B platforms like LiveVend have a chance to vastly improve buyer and seller experiences in otherwise traditional industries and unlock massive opportunity to digitise large value streams in the process.
“The team’s expertise within the industry and their vision to offer highly relevant services backed by their own on-the-ground experiences have been deeply impressive.”

The CEO of Zedcrest Capital, Mr. Dayo Amzat, also explained why his company backed CutStruct. Amzat saying: “Over the last decade, Africa in general, has seen tremendous improvement in many sectors of the economy ranging from payments, e-Commerce, banking, telecoms etc.

“However, despite the biggest capital asset on the continent being real estate, every aspect of the real estate value chain from construction management to mortgages remain grossly underdeveloped, with very low net promoter scores.

“We, therefore, welcome the efforts of John and Tayo in helping organise the construction marketplace, bringing much needed transparency and improvements to construction processes. This fits into our interest at Zedcrest, and is in line with a major market development initiative. We are currently pursuing with an African-focused housing-DFI.”

Oamen and Odunsi, who are the promoters of CutStruct Technology, were able to raise the fund by collaborating with the Zedcrest Capital, the DFS Lab and the Lofty Inc, with the participation of angel investors that included Mr. Kola Aina.