Introduction:
In many cities, obtaining the necessary building permits, whether for a home or commercial project, Construction Permitting for Businesses can take an unbearably long time.
To make the process for businesses considerably less painful and faster, a new proptech startup has already attracted several significant clients, including Chick-fil-A, Domino’s, and Chipotle. Time is money for these kinds of enterprises. Therefore, it stands to reason that they can make more money the quicker they get up and running.
With the help of $8 million in venture funding led by Trust Ventures and participation from LiveOak Ventures and Chicago Ventures, Construction Permitting for Businesses the Austin-based firm GreenLite is coming out of stealth today. According to the company, their platform expedites the approval process for city planning permits by 75%, allowing businesses to obtain licenses in a matter of weeks instead of months or, in the worst-case scenario, years.
According to GreenLite’s CEO and co-founder James Gallagher, the company has developed software that enables it to “own” the permitting process from beginning to end, improving its ability to forecast opening dates and promptly address concerns raised during plan review. Developers seeking to build are connected to the city departments responsible for regulating and reviewing construction permits through its platform and staff.
“Other companies in the space have focused on building project management software for either of those sides, and they only serve one side—the developer or the city agency,” he sent an email to TechCrunch. Some businesses in the industry have also concentrated on improving the expediting of permits, which uses a local middleman or consulting agency to speed up the permission procedure. Since we don’t think expediting is scalable, we have no interest in doing so.
Former Gopuff executive Gallagher continued, saying, “We think the key to solving this issue is to create a single platform that benefits all Construction Permitting for Businesses stakeholders on both sides. The permission process fails if data is kept in silos and coordination between all parties is difficult.
In addition to major food chains, GreenLite claims to collaborate with hundreds of companies, such as vast franchisees, EV charging networks, and five of the ten biggest global retailers.
Construction Permitting for Businesses:
Construction Permitting for Businesses [Source of Image: Techcrunch.com]
For instance, Chick-fil-A had encountered six- to twelve-month wait times for development permits. According to GreenLite, it was able to reduce the time required for building permits to a few weeks.
GreenLite was founded in July 2022, and according to Gallagher, the reason it has gained so much traction so quickly is that “pain is high and the problem is real and expensive – so there’s lots of demand.” He refused to provide any information on the company’s valuation, revenue, or financials.
According to him, the 27-person business intends to expand its product and engineering teams, go after new markets, and build its go-to-market (sales and customer success) team with the help of additional funding.
At the moment, GreenLite claims to serve clients all over the country, although it focuses mostly on Florida and Texas. It plans to increase its footprint in Tennessee, Virginia, New Jersey, and California with the new capital.
It’s the largest barrier to construction, and you have no control over it at all. Permitting today entails unclear requirements, unforeseen delays that result in cost overruns, and no visibility into the schedule,” the man emailed. “We invested in GreenLite since their team has firsthand experience with this challenge. In certain instances, the system saves over a million dollars in lost revenue and increases transparency by obtaining permits from consumers in 33% of the situations. For engineers, architects, and business owners, it’s revolutionary.
