Cascade Raises $3.5 Million to Help Construction Firms Win More Projects

Construction technology startup Cascade has secured $3.5 million in seed funding to expand its artificial intelligence-powered platform that helps architecture, engineering and construction firms identify, pursue and win new projects. Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures and Snowball VC backed the funding round.

Founded in 2025 by Hannia Zia and Joana Ferreira, Cascade was created after both founders witnessed the challenges construction businesses face when trying to secure a steady pipeline of work. Rather than spending countless hours searching across disconnected government and private procurement portals, the startup aims to simplify the process with AI-driven project discovery and predictive insights.

Building a smarter way to discover construction opportunities

According to the founders, construction firms often spend significant time searching for new projects across hundreds of federal, state, county, district and city procurement websites. Each portal publishes opportunities independently, making the process fragmented and difficult to manage, particularly for companies operating across multiple regions.

Cascade brings these opportunities together in a single platform. After a company joins the service, its AI analyses the firm’s expertise, previous work and target markets to identify projects where it has the strongest chance of success. The platform also predicts upcoming opportunities by monitoring grants, procurement announcements and historical tender data.

For example, if a government agency announces a new affordable housing programme, Cascade studies previous grant winners, identifies developers most likely to secure the latest contracts and recommends that customers begin building relationships with those organisations before projects officially reach the bidding stage.

Founders inspired by real construction industry challenges

Ferreira said her family has long been involved in the construction sector, giving her firsthand insight into the industry’s challenges. Her mother worked for a supplier serving construction companies, while her uncle built luxury homes in the Middle East. Despite their expertise, they often lacked access to modern tools that could help them generate consistent business.

Zia shared a similar experience from Pakistan, where her father attempted to launch a construction business but struggled to find enough projects to keep operations running. Those experiences inspired the pair to create technology that reduces uncertainty and gives firms greater visibility into future work opportunities.

The founders joined Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun accelerator last year, where they refined the product and gained exposure to investors and enterprise customers. They said the programme helped them secure contracts with companies involved in major projects, including JFK and LaGuardia airports, Four Seasons hotels and large-scale data centre developments.

AI platform continues learning from every project.

Cascade differentiates itself from traditional construction intelligence platforms by placing AI at the centre of its recommendation engine. Every time a customer wins a project, the platform captures feedback that improves future predictions, allowing its models to become increasingly accurate over time.

The company believes this continuous learning approach will eventually create a comprehensive digital map of the construction industry, enabling its AI to recommend the most promising projects, developers and business leads for every customer.

The newly raised capital will be used to accelerate go-to-market activities, organise industry events and expand the engineering team as Cascade continues developing new AI capabilities for architecture, engineering and construction firms across the United States.