Faro Technologies acquires Holo Builder

The RWTH Aachen University spin-off has new owners. The old shareholders will receive 34 million US dollars.

The Aachen-based start-up Holo Builder goes to the US technology company Faro Technologies. Holo Builder offers a software solution for recording and virtually managing construction progress using 360° cameras. Holo Builder has customers in more than 35 countries and has documented more than 28,000 projects to date. The start-up is now based in San Francisco, but much of the research and development work continues to take place in Aachen. Holo Builder's existing shareholders received a cash payment of 34 million US dollars.

"The merger of Holo Builder and Faro advances our vision of digitizing the physical world for process automation and workflow optimization," says Mostafa Akbari-Hochberg, founder of Holo Builder. "The powerful combination of high-precision laser scanning with ^360° photo capture and real-time collaboration will provide customers of both companies with a comprehensive digital twin solution."

NRW.Bank had to sell its shares for the takeover. It had held a stake in the start-up since January 2019. "As the development bank for North Rhine-Westphalia, we have accompanied Holo Builder in the expansion of the NRW location and supported its growth, which has now reached a point where the start-up is interesting for the participation of a strategic partner," says Michael Stölting, Member of the Managing Board of NRW.Bank. In the last financial year, Holo Builder generated sales of four million US dollars, with an annual growth rate of almost 75% since 2019.