Procore brings construction software growth to Canadian markets

Canada is a growing market for construction software, and a leading company in that sector, Procore, is taking advantage by opening offices in two Canadian cities.

Based out of California, Procore offers a variety of project management software products covering the construction industry. Thanks to a core of Canadian users, the company has decided to make Canada a target for its own expansion.

"When I joined Procore initially, they saw Canada as an extension of the United States, but it's just such a different market with different personas and different requirements that we had to look at it as a different segment," said Bassem Hamdy, Procore executive vice president, marketing and enterprise strategy. "It's really exciting to be doing this - I think the Canadian construction market has been historically underserved by technology."

Hamdy - originally from Toronto - said that Canada has a number of approaches to the construction industry that are unique compared to the United States. He cited the proliferation of public-private partnerships as one area that Canada approaches more readily than American governments and contractors. A smaller community of subcontractors compared to the States also encourages the use of management software as part of a more collaborative approach to projects, he added.

Procore has around 200 customers in Canada, ranging from large general contractors to smaller specialized operations across the country. The new offices in Toronto and Vancouver will be targeted at serving those customers as well as, in the near future, sales and marketing efforts.

"We're putting customer success in place to ensure that clients have a successful experience with Procore, and we're also working to have our product capture things that are unique to Canada, like GST, PST and those kinds of things," Hamdy said. "Ultimately, sales and marketing will be there to drive demand."

The company currently has around nine staff in place working from temporary offices, but expects to ramp that up, with 25 to 30 positions expected to be in place after permanent offices are established several months down the road.

Once those are in place, Hamdy said the company may consider other locations as well, pointing to Alberta and Ottawa as opportunities in the future.

Procore's Canadian operations can be reached by phone at 604-900-5280.