BuildrFi is constructing the fintech tools for contractors
By Riley Kaminer
Isabel Rodriguez grew up in a household of builders. You know, the real kind: the ones who go out in the physical world and construct things. Also the kind that create businesses, jobs, and legacies for her family.
Her dad, alongside her oldest brother, built a construction company from the ground up. “It was great to see that entire process of starting a business from scratch – going from nothing to something,” Rodriguez told Refresh Miami. Soon enough, the family business began doing major infrastructure projects around their native Colombia.
That rapid growth came with its fair share of struggles though. “Things got pretty tough,” Rodriguez said, especially when it came to the waiting game that is accounts receivable.
Rodriguez took a different path at first, moving to Miami in 2012 and studying international business and marketing. It was a private wealth internship at Santander Bank that made Rodriguez realize the power of tech to transform traditional industries.
But that spark would lie dormant for around four years, as Rodriguez launched a stone fabrication and installation business. That is when she started to experience firsthand the same headaches that she saw her dad and brother suffer: payments held up by antiquated processes and policies that work against contractors.
Around four years later, Rodriguez was studying for an MBA at Georgia Tech when she had an idea. What if she could build a platform to help construction professionals like herself and her family with their finances?
As an MBA internship at Salesforce converted to a full-time position, Rodriguez’s dream didn’t die. Much to the contrary, it became what is now known as Miami startup BuildrFi – a project which Rodriguez now works on full-time, having left Salesforce in April.
BuildrFi enables contractors to monitor their cash flow with a suite of financial tools, including AI-powered payment platform and partnerships with lending providers. This is critical in a context where payments take an average of 94 days to be settled, often causing costly delays. Since its soft launch six weeks ago, BuildrFi had a successful closed beta onboarding subcontractors across five states to their platform and granting close to $200,000 in materials financing through their embedded financing solution.
Rodriguez and co-founder/COO Stephanie De Valle officially launched BuildrFi in August of last year during the Built in Miami program, going from idea to MVP to business incorporation in just three months. Now, the six-person company is currently going through a Techstars accelerator, with Techstars having invested $120,000 into the business.
In October, the startup won an eMerge Americas pitch competition, which provided the team with a $2,500 grant and a fast track to the 2024 eMerge Americas Startup Showcase, where BuildrFi was chosen as one of the top 10 early stage companies.
And Rodriguez is excited to keep the momentum going: “We’re opening a $1.5 million pre-seed so that we can get 400 customers, reach a million dollars in ARR, and probably process $25 million of financing as well.” Clearly, she knows how to build.
Photo at top of post: BuildrFi co-founders Isabel Rodriguez, left, and Stephanie De Valle, right.
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I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.
