Construction startup ‘unicorn’ opens inside Raleigh’s planned tallest building

by Linda

A billion-dollar startup has opened an office in downtown Raleigh’s Glenwood South neighborhood where it seeks to triple its headcount in the next few years.

The southern California company BuildOps provides software for commercial contractors to manage payments, scheduling and project orders. Founded in 2018, it achieved startup “unicorn” status in March after raising money at a $1 billion-plus valuation.

“A lot of very successful businesses out there are still using pen and paper to document all of these things on site,” said Lee Parker III, a Raleigh native who started as a BuildOps sale development representative last month. “And things can fall through the cracks that way.”

In June, BuildOps chose downtown Raleigh for its third corporate office, adding to its sites in Los Angeles and Toronto. The N.C. Economic Investment Committee approved an economic incentive for the company to hire 291 people at a local office between 2026 and 2029 at an average annual salary of at least $111,000. The city of Raleigh awarded BuildOps its own performance-based incentive package worth up to $87,300.

BuildOps CEO Alok Chanani says the company already employs close to 100 people at its North Carolina office inside the historic two-story Creamery building, which developers plan to turn into Raleigh’s tallest skyscraper called Highline Glenwood. “We did a survey of our team, and everybody wanted to be downtown,” he said. “They wanted the vibrancy, they wanted the industry. They wanted to be able to walk everywhere.”

The Creamery Building in the Glenwood South district. It’s set to be redeveloped starting in late 2025.

Contractors experiencing blue-collar labor shortages have gravitated toward BuildOps platforms to cover logistics gaps, Chanani said. The office grand opening event Wednesday was his first trip to the Triangle, an area he said BuildOps chose for its energy and engineering talent.

The space the company occupies on Glenwood Avenue was previously filled by the drone technology firm PrecisionHawk, which went bankrupt in late 2023. Glenwood South is one of the city’s busiest nightlife districts, but attracting a 9-to-5 workforce is critical to the neighborhood, too, says Michael Haley, executive director of Wake County Economic Development.

“An office project like this can happen quickly,” he said. “But they really hit the accelerator when it comes to their ability to get this thing up and running.”

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