Cascade Secures $3.5 Million Seed Round to Revolutionize Project Acquisition for AEC Firms with AI-Powered Platform

Cascade, an innovative startup dedicated to transforming how architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms discover and secure projects, has successfully closed a $3.5 million seed funding round. The investment, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s highly selective Speedrun program, alongside Ada Ventures and Snowball VC, underscores a growing recognition of the critical need for advanced technological solutions within the traditionally fragmented and often opaque construction industry. The capital infusion is set to accelerate Cascade’s market entry, expand its engineering team, and solidify its position as a leading AI-native platform in the AEC project procurement space.

Launched in 2025, Cascade’s foundation is rooted in the firsthand experiences of its co-founders, Hannia Zia and Joana Ferreira, who both witnessed the profound difficulties construction businesses face in predictably securing work. Their personal observations revealed a widespread inefficiency that impedes growth and sustainability across the sector. Ferreira recounted the challenges faced by her own family members, noting, "My mother worked in a company that sold materials to construction companies, and my uncle built mansions in the Middle East." She observed that despite their exceptional craftsmanship and dedication, they "just don’t have access to the right tools to get more work." This lack of accessible, strategic tools meant that even highly skilled professionals struggled to maintain a consistent project pipeline.

Similarly, Zia’s personal experience resonated deeply with this pervasive industry problem. She recalled the time her father attempted to establish a construction business in her native Pakistan, only to encounter significant hurdles. "He just couldn’t get enough projects to sustain himself," Zia shared, highlighting how the inability to consistently secure new work can undermine even the most promising ventures. These personal narratives underscore a universal pain point within the global construction industry: the profound disconnect between a firm’s capabilities and its capacity to identify and win suitable projects.

Zia vividly describes the current process of finding construction projects as a "constant treasure hunt." For AEC firms operating in the United States, this often entails a laborious, manual effort of logging into a multitude of disparate online portals. Each U.S. state, city, district, county, and federal agency maintains its own separate platform for publishing project tenders and opportunities. This fragmented landscape creates an immense administrative burden. "So if you’re really good at building suspension bridges, you have to find all of those opportunities across these disparate portals," Zia explained. This manual aggregation of information is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error, leading to missed opportunities and inefficient resource allocation for firms attempting to navigate this complex web of public and private procurement channels.

Cascade aims to directly address this systemic inefficiency by providing a unified, intelligent platform that streamlines the project acquisition process for architecture, construction, and engineering firms. The platform’s core functionality revolves around tracking both ongoing and upcoming projects from a multitude of sources. What truly sets Cascade apart is its sophisticated application of artificial intelligence, which leverages prior tender data to predict with remarkable accuracy which developers are most likely to win specific deals. This predictive capability moves beyond simple data aggregation, offering strategic foresight that can fundamentally reshape a firm’s business development approach.

The platform operates with a clear and intuitive workflow. Once a company signs up, Cascade employs advanced AI tools to analyze the firm’s profile, past projects, and core competencies. This analysis is then used to determine which upcoming projects the firm has the highest probability of winning, ensuring that opportunities presented are highly relevant and aligned with their expertise. Beyond matching, Cascade excels in proactively predicting future project opportunities. It meticulously monitors a diverse array of signals and data points, drawing intelligence from U.S. states, local districts, private contracts, and federal agencies. These signals can include legislative changes, funding announcements, urban planning documents, and economic forecasts, all of which often precede new construction initiatives.

Ferreira provided a compelling example of Cascade’s predictive power in action: "For example, if a state announces a $100 million affordable housing grant, Cascade will monitor which developers won the grant the last time it was announced." This historical analysis is then transformed into actionable intelligence for its users. "We connect that data, and we tell our customers: ‘Most likely one of these five developers will win this newly announced grant, so go start talking to them to win projects,’" Ferreira explained. This proactive approach empowers AEC firms to engage with potential prime contractors, developers, or partners early in the project lifecycle, often long before official requests for proposals (RFPs) are even released. This early engagement provides a significant strategic advantage, allowing firms to build relationships, influence project specifications, and position themselves favorably for future bids.

The journey to securing the $3.5 million seed round was significantly bolstered by the founders’ participation in Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun accelerator program. Zia and Ferreira applied to a16z’s Speedrun in September of the previous year, immersing themselves in an intensive environment designed to accelerate startup growth. They highlighted that the inherent "pressure to do well on demo day" and being surrounded by the "brilliance" of other innovative founders within the program created a powerful catalyst for their company’s development. This period of intense focus and mentorship proved instrumental in Cascade’s early traction, helping the company secure crucial contracts with high-profile firms. These early clients include those responsible for monumental infrastructure projects such as the JFK and LaGuardia airports, luxury developments like Four Seasons hotels, and essential data centers. Zia emphasized the tangible benefits of the program, stating, "Speedrun gave us visibility and a stamp of approval to close big deals," highlighting how the accelerator’s endorsement significantly enhanced their credibility and market access.

With the fresh infusion of capital, Cascade is strategically poised for significant expansion. The startup will allocate the $3.5 million across several key areas, primarily focusing on its "go to market" strategy. This comprehensive approach will likely involve scaling sales and marketing efforts to broaden its reach within the AEC industry, developing strategic partnerships, and establishing a strong brand presence. A significant portion of the funding will also be dedicated to hosting industry events, which will serve as crucial platforms for networking, demonstrating Cascade’s advanced capabilities, and engaging directly with potential clients and stakeholders. Crucially, the company plans to invest heavily in its technological backbone by hiring more engineers. This expansion of the engineering team will be vital for further enhancing the platform’s AI capabilities, developing new features, scaling infrastructure to accommodate a growing user base, and ensuring the continuous refinement of its predictive algorithms and data processing capabilities. The addition of specialized AI/ML engineers and data scientists will be key to deepening the platform’s intelligence and expanding its predictive scope.

While the market for project intelligence in the AEC sector features established players like GovWin IQ and ConstructConnect, Ferreira argues that Cascade distinguishes itself through its inherently "AI-native" design. Unlike many legacy platforms that primarily function as large databases or static lead generation tools, Cascade’s core strength lies in its machine learning capabilities and continuous improvement cycle. The platform is engineered to learn and evolve with every interaction, making it a dynamic rather than static solution. As Ferreira explained, "Every time a customer wins a bid, they give feedback, so the system keeps getting smarter." This invaluable feedback loop allows Cascade’s AI to constantly refine its predictive models, enhance its understanding of project nuances, and better tailor recommendations based on real-world outcomes.

Over time, this iterative learning process is expected to culminate in "a complete map of the industry that our AI can traverse to predict the best projects and leads for each customer." This vision positions Cascade not merely as a data provider but as a strategic partner, offering highly personalized and actionable insights that can fundamentally alter how AEC firms approach their business development strategies. By providing a more predictable and successful project acquisition process, Cascade aims to empower firms to make data-driven decisions, optimize their bidding strategies, allocate resources more efficiently, and ultimately achieve more consistent growth in a competitive and complex industry. The ability to move beyond simple data retrieval to dynamic, intelligent predictions offers a significant competitive edge in an industry ripe for technological disruption and improved efficiency.

This report was contributed by Dominic-Madori Davis, a senior venture capital and startup reporter at TechCrunch. Based in New York City, Davis specializes in covering emerging companies and investment trends within the technology sector. For contact or verification of outreach, Dominic can be reached via email at [email protected] or through encrypted message at +1 646 831-7565 on Signal.