Investment to Accelerate AI-Powered Safety and Operations Risk Intelligence for Construction, Utilities, Energy, and Industrial Sectors
CHARLOTTE, N.C. and PLEASANTON, Calif., July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — FactorLab, a Work Risk AI company dedicated to transforming how high-risk work is planned and delivered in distributed operations, today announced a strategic growth investment from Falfurrias Growth Partners (Falfurrias), a Charlotte-based private equity firm focused on growth-oriented, middle-market businesses. The investment will support FactorLab’s next phase of growth and customer success by funding continued development of FactorLab’s proprietary AI and machine learning technology; growth of its commercial organization; and expansion into adjacent industries that share a need for stronger safety and operational risk intelligence.
Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, FactorLab has established itself as an early leader in applying artificial intelligence to the conversations and decisions that happen on the front line, serving enterprise customers across construction, utilities, energy, and industrial markets. The company’s platform, SmartTagIt, uses proprietary natural language processing and machine learning models to capture and analyze frontline conversations, insights and how work actually gets done, giving leaders early visibility into where work is likely to break down. It turns previously untapped field data into real-time, actionable insights that help organizations identify and mitigate risk at the source, and surfaces new risk signals and game tape to empower crews to deliver on-time, prevent rework, and go home safe.
Over the past five years the platform has analyzed more than 2 million daily planning conversations across thousands of worksites and now operates more than 40 proprietary AI models. This scale powers normative benchmarks that let organizations measure field engagement, planning quality, and leadership performance against industry peers. Its mobile-first, intuitive interface drives high adoption among workers, replacing static checklists with a social, engaging experience that field crews and leaders use as an integral part of their daily workflow.
“We have built something fundamentally new for the industry: a platform that learns from real frontline conversations, decisions, and work practices to help organizations operate more safely, consistently, and productively,” said Barry Nelson, Founder and CEO of FactorLab. “Our customers have shown what is possible when frontline learning becomes part of daily operations, and we are deeply grateful for the trust they have placed in SmartTagIt. As we looked to accelerate our investment in technology, product innovation, and our team, we set out to find a partner who understood both the importance of our mission and the scale of the opportunity ahead. We chose Falfurrias because they share our vision, bring highly relevant experience across industrial and business-to-business markets, and have a proven track record helping AI-enabled companies scale with discipline and purpose.”
“We are excited to partner with Barry and the entire FactorLab team. The company has assembled an expansive, proprietary dataset in field safety and operational performance, and its technology delivers measurable value by embedding directly into frontline teams daily planning and operations,” said Michael Clifton and John Comly, Partners at Falfurrias. “FactorLab sits squarely within our focus on growing AI-enabled software businesses, and we believe our operational resources and sector experience will help the team rapidly scale its commercial engine, deepen its product capabilities, and extend its leadership across new sectors.” Bringing that experience to bear, Piers Wells, an Industry First executive with Falfurrias, will serve as a Director of FactorLab and brings deep industrial technology, operational, and go-to-market experience scaling businesses in FactorLab’s sectors.
Equity for this investment comes from Falfurrias Growth Partners I, a growth buyout fund strategy launched by Falfurrias Management Partners in 2023 and builds on the firm’s experience in the industrial technology and software sectors. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Ernst & Young Capital Advisors LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to FactorLab on the transaction, and Holland & Knight LLP served as legal advisor to Falfurrias.
About FactorLab
FactorLab is a Work Risk AI company dedicated to helping distributed organizations transform safety, operational performance, and frontline leadership across construction, utilities, energy, and industrial operations. Its SmartTagIt platform uses proprietary AI and natural language processing models to capture and analyze frontline conversations, insights, and how work actually gets done to give leaders early visibility into risk across every worksite. It surfaces risk signals and game tape that legacy compliance tools cannot reach to empower crews to deliver on-time, prevent rework, and go home safe. FactorLab partners with leading operators in complex, distributed work environments to help them see risk differently, build capacity to improve how work gets done, and operate safely with less effort. For more information, visit www.factorlab.com.
About Falfurrias Growth Partners
Falfurrias Growth Partners is an operationally focused middle-market investment fund focused on investing in high-growth companies in the software and business services sectors. The team is comprised of investors and proven operators, as well as in-house resources across strategy & market insights, finance / integration, human capital, and technology. The new fund strategy was launched in 2023 and is led by Cam Dyer, Partner and Chairman of Falfurrias Growth Partners I’s investment committee. The fund is managed by Falfurrias Management Partners, a Charlotte-based investment firm founded in 2006 by Hugh McColl Jr., former chairman and CEO of Bank of America; Marc Oken, former CFO of Bank of America; and Managing Partner Ed McMahan. The firm has raised approximately $4.0 billion across eight funds and invests in growing, middle-market businesses in sectors where the firm’s operational resources, relationships, and sector expertise can be employed to complement portfolio company executive teams in support of growth objectives. For more information, visit www.falfurrias.com.
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