Antbuildz rents heavy autos and building gear out to contractors and work websites
Renting a scissor carry or crawler crane would possibly sound worlds other than reserving a vacation or ordering groceries. But, for years, the way in which building corporations sourced gear was nearer to the Eighties than the 2020s—characterised by cellphone calls, paper quotes, unclear funds, and lengthy waits. For an business that actually builds fashionable skylines, its personal rental processes remained stubbornly analogue.
Antbuildz, a Singapore-based startup, got down to change this. By reworking building gear leases right into a seamless digital expertise, the platform demonstrates how even essentially the most conventional industries may be disrupted.
We spoke with Malaysian founder and CEO Kek Hean Hooi, 38, to know how he recognized the hole, constructed Southeast Asia’s first and largest B2B market for building gear rental, and is now making ready to take it international.
Recognizing a spot in a standard business
In right now’s digital age, nearly every little thing may be executed on-line, from ordering groceries to reserving flights. But when it got here to building gear leases, the method remained painfully outdated. Quotes usually took days to reach, particulars have been steadily incomplete, and unclear cost strategies led to delayed and even defaulted funds to lenders of heavy equipment.
Recognizing this inefficiency, Kek envisioned a platform that might make renting and promoting building gear seamless, clear, and environment friendly by digitalising a course of that had hardly modified in many years. Each day, weekly, and month-to-month charges are clearly acknowledged, and supply charges by the companion enterprise are clearly acknowledged. Every itemizing additionally features a evaluate of the proprietor’s historical past of enterprise conduct. Deciding on the dates required for rental immediately generates a citation on website.
Kek’s profession started as an engineer, with stints throughout the oil and gasoline business in addition to in market analysis analytics. His final company place was as Challenge Management Lead at Tiong Woon Company, a heavy carry specialist in Singapore.
The function gave him each a agency grasp of enterprise operations and a close-up understanding of what prospects wanted when renting heavy gear. After greater than eight years immersed in heavy industries, Kek recognised how outdated the sector’s processes have been. Conventional leases have been gradual, unsystematic, and proof against technological change. Impressed by platforms like Reserving.com and Agoda, he started to ask: Why can’t renting heavy equipment be as easy, quick, and clear as reserving a resort?
Again in 2020, Kek’s analysis revealed that lower than 1% of building gear leases worldwide have been performed on-line, highlighting a large alternative.
Conventional leases required repeated calls, a number of quotations, and sometimes got here with hidden charges, making the method each cumbersome and opaque.
For a couple of yr, the concept took form as he mentioned it along with his long-time mates, Owen Lim and Pouya Pezhman. When his proposal failed to achieve traction at Tiong Woon, Kek made the choice to depart in Might 2020 to pursue it full-time, joined by Owen and Pouya, who initially supported operations and product growth earlier than changing into absolutely concerned as co-founders.
Their timing was serendipitous. The COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, and plenty of rental corporations reliant on cellphone calls or face-to-face conferences struggled to function. Antbuildz supplied a digital various at precisely the correct second, permitting companies to proceed renting gear with minimal disruption and bodily contact.
From startup struggles to gaining market validation
Successful belief in a conservative B2B market was by no means going to be simple. Convincing companies to undertake a digital answer in such a standard sector required persistence and persistence. Kek remembers lengthy days spent cold-emailing potential shoppers and working focused commercials to drive site visitors to the platform. The trio invested S$50,000 of their very own financial savings, going with out salaries till August 2020, after they lastly closed their first deal and had their first itemizing. That milestone validated their mannequin and gave them the arrogance to scale.
Antbuildz manages the backend, from analytics to fleet administration, whereas companions deal with gross sales of their heavy gear.
These improvements have modified the way in which companies understand digital transactions within the heavy gear business. Companions admire the assured payouts, whereas prospects take pleasure in sooner, extra reasonably priced, and insured leases. Kek emphasised the platform’s impression: “My companions are very blissful as we will assure funds, regardless of incomes barely much less per product. The default is a internet zero. We solved a really huge challenge within the rental of building gear constructed on camaraderie and credit score.”
By 2025, Antbuildz had grown right into a market with greater than 100,000 rental and gross sales listings and partnerships with over 700 companies. Buyer loyalty was sturdy, with a 50% recurring price, and three fundraising rounds introduced in a complete of S$700,000.
Innovation, growth, and technique
The crew by no means stopped innovating. In 2023, Antbuildz launched a “purchase” characteristic that allowed companies to buy each new and used gear. “By this purchase/promote plus rental characteristic, we’re recycling sources to be more practical so prospects can discover issues cheaper than they anticipated,” Kek defined.
To guard all events, Antbuildz balanced the wants of either side, guaranteeing payouts for companions, encouraging buyer deposits to scale back defaults, and insuring gear rented as much as S$30,000 by a partnership with Hong Leong. Prospects additionally benefited from instantaneous quotations throughout a number of suppliers, reducing choice instances from days to minutes.
Underlying these improvements was a cautious development technique. From the beginning, Antbuildz relied closely on digital advertising and marketing. Academic weblog content material not solely knowledgeable companies about rental greatest practices and suggestions but in addition boosted search engine rankings and attracted natural site visitors. The outcomes have been clear: 60% of site visitors now comes from search, in comparison with simply 20% from social media.
Then in early 2025, Antbuildz launched a proprietary SaaS webstore—a Shopify-like answer the place companies may create on-line storefronts with customisable drag-and-drop options and templates. This new product permits Antbuildz to achieve audiences past Singapore and Malaysia.
Notable customers embody Karcher, Hyster, and Sanway. Curiosity has even come from outdoors the heavy gear sector, hinting at broader purposes. Kek described the webstore as “the following ‘in’ factor… an upgraded and extra participating model of an internet site that individuals can work together with.”
The corporate additionally started increasing into adjoining classes, together with spare components, autos, know-how, and security gear.
The journey to this point and what’s lies forward
By Might 2025, Antbuildz had surpassed S$10 million in transactions, with authorities companies and academic establishments just like the Constructing and Development Authority (BCA) and the Nationwide College of Singapore (NUS) looking for Antbuildz’s platform for gear rental of their varied tasks.
To succeed in international audiences, it built-in ChatGPT-powered AI to translate its platform into 20 completely different languages, whereas {the marketplace} is engaged on new AI options to assist prospects search extra effectively and even suggest gear primarily based on particular contexts.
At this time, Antbuildz serves over 5,600 customers with greater than 100,000 listings. For Kek, the journey displays a wider shift in client behaviour. “Rental is identical as subscriptions,” he mirrored. “The entire world goes into rental mode. We’re continually altering and creating new issues. If folks don’t convert, it’s as a result of the instruments lack a worth proposition. In that case, we’ve to pivot and discover the correct path.”
Wanting forward, Antbuildz plans to increase past Southeast Asia into markets comparable to Taiwan and Australia.
From its modest beginnings throughout Kek’s company tenure to a multi-million-dollar platform reworking the gear rental business, Antbuildz demonstrates how persistence, innovation, and know-how can disrupt even essentially the most conventional companies.
What was as soon as a gradual, credit-based course of has now turn into as simple as a couple of clicks—proving that even building gear leases can thrive within the digital age.
- Be taught extra about Antbuildz here.
- Learn extra articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Antbuildz
