Key Highlights

• AI startup Cascade has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round.
• The company helps architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms identify projects before tenders are announced.
• Investors include Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, Indico Capital, and others.
• Cascade says its customers have already identified over $10 billion in project opportunities through the platform.

Winning a construction contract often depends on being in the right place long before a request for proposal (RFP) is published. AI startup Cascade wants to give construction firms that advantage.

The New York-based company has raised $3.5 million in fresh funding to expand its AI-powered platform, which helps architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms detect upcoming projects months before they officially go to bid. The investment round was backed by Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, Indico Capital, shuckerVC, G2C Ventures, and Snowball VC.

According to the company, customers have already uncovered more than $10 billion worth of project opportunities, including work related to airports, luxury hotels, data centers, and nuclear facilities.

AI Looks for Construction Opportunities Before They Become Public

Instead of waiting for tenders to appear, Cascade scans thousands of public and commercial data sources to identify early signals that indicate a construction project is taking shape.

The platform continuously analyzes bond filings, building permits, capital improvement plans, property transactions, earnings calls, government budgets, and public meeting minutes. Using AI, it connects these seemingly unrelated signals to predict where future construction work is likely to emerge.

This gives firms the opportunity to build relationships with developers, prepare proposals, and position themselves before competitors even know a project exists.

Beyond Project Discovery

Cascade’s platform goes beyond simply identifying opportunities.

It evaluates how well each project matches a company’s expertise, helping firms prioritize bids with the highest chance of success. The system also analyzes existing business relationships through tools such as Outlook to identify warm introductions and potential partners for upcoming projects.

As more companies use the platform, Cascade says its AI becomes smarter by learning which signals consistently lead to successful bids and which firms are best suited for specific types of work.

The company believes this network effect will strengthen recommendations over time while improving collaboration opportunities across the construction industry.

Already Used on Major Infrastructure Projects

Although still a young startup, Cascade has quickly gained traction among firms involved in some of the world’s largest construction projects.

Its customers have worked on developments including John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport, luxury hotel projects, data centers, and nuclear facilities.

Several customers say the platform has already delivered measurable business results.

Luxury architecture firm Smallwood said Cascade helped it discover and win a $6 million project that it would not have identified through traditional industry channels.

Florida-based contractor S.A. Casey Construction said the platform has become part of its project planning and opportunity discovery process, while engineering firm Munoz Engineering highlighted its value in navigating New York City’s competitive construction market.

Founded by Former Google Executives

Cascade was founded by Hannia Zia and Joana Ferreira, both former Google executives who later worked together at AI startup UnlikelyAI, founded by the creator of Amazon Alexa.

The founders describe Cascade as applying investment-style predictive analytics to construction.

Instead of forecasting stock prices, the platform predicts where future construction activity is likely to happen by analyzing large volumes of structured and unstructured data.

The fresh funding will be used to expand Cascade’s AI capabilities, grow its customer base, and strengthen its network across the architecture, engineering, and construction sectors.

Why This Matters

Construction remains one of the world’s largest industries, yet business development often relies on relationships, manual research, and institutional knowledge. Cascade is attempting to modernize that process with predictive AI, giving firms visibility into projects before formal bidding begins.

As AI moves beyond chatbots and productivity tools into highly specialized industries, platforms like Cascade demonstrate how artificial intelligence can solve industry-specific problems with measurable business impact. For construction firms, identifying the right opportunity before competitors could prove just as valuable as building the project itself.