Sierra Ventures: Our Early-Stage Investment in Planera
Disrupting the Construction Scheduling & Planning Market
At Sierra Ventures, we believe in backing visionary founders poised to disrupt industries with innovative technology. Our investment in Planera is a testament to this philosophy. The construction planning industry is on the brink of a transformative shift, especially in commercial sectors like airports, bridges, and large infrastructure projects. Planera is uniquely positioned to lead this change.
A Complex Industry in Transition
Construction planning has always been a challenging domain, dominated by two mainstays: Oracle Primavera and Microsoft Project. These tools have served the industry for years, but they are far from perfect.
Both tools lack collaboration features and fail to provide the visual planning capabilities that today’s construction professionals require. The industry is seeking a solution combining the best of both worlds—robustness and simplicity—with modern collaboration and visual planning tools.
Planera’s founders recognized this gap in the market and built a cloud-based solution that addresses the shortcomings of existing tools and pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in construction planning. This includes a full-functioning CPM engine, which allows for scenario planning, multi-player collaboration, and role-based controls. All of these allow for increased scalability, which will make it the go-to choice for the largest construction projects.
The Founding Team: A Proven Track Record
Planera’s leadership team brings together a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success. Nitin Bhandari, a two-time entrepreneur, was previously the CEO and founder of Skyfire, which was acquired by Opera Software, and CEO of Zenlabs, which Life360 acquired.
Erik Swenson, Planera’s co-founder and CTO, was also a co-founder at Skyfire along with Nitin and led the company to a successful exit.
The Future of Construction Planning
In an industry that is ripe for disruption, Planera stands out as a company that not only addresses current pain points but also shapes the future of construction planning. With a strong technical foundation, a visionary GTM strategy, and a world-class team, Planera is poised to lead the next wave of innovation in this space.
We are excited to partner with Planera on this journey and look forward to seeing how they transform the construction planning industry.