Build, a British-U.S. AI company, has raised €7.4 million ($8.5 million) in seed funding to accelerate its platform that automates infrastructure workflows for governments, developers, and investors. The company announced the round on June 30, 2026, and says its AI systems can reduce project timelines by more than 95%, with deployments already live on over 100 projects across 15 countries.
The round was led by Index Ventures. Pebblebed, Puzzle Ventures, and Tiny.vc also participated, alongside angels including OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar and Blackstone chief technology officer John Stecher.
James Stirrat-Ellis, co-founder and CEO, said: "The industries shaping the physical world have spent decades trapped in process instead of creativity. By removing that operational burden, we can help teams move faster, make better decisions and deliver better infrastructure. That's the long-term opportunity and we're only at the beginning of it."
How Build automates infrastructure workflows
Build's platform analyzes information from more than 1,600 data sources, evaluating planning, environmental, power, and political constraints in parallel rather than sequentially. This helps customers identify risks earlier and focus resources on the highest-potential opportunities. The company combines AI talent with domain experts from firms such as Blackstone, Tishman Speyer, Starwood Capital, and JP Morgan to automate complex infrastructure workflows-from site sourcing and technical due diligence to power assessment and early design.
Real estate AI investment surges in 2026
Build's seed round is part of a broader surge in investment into AI for real estate and construction. Comparable 2026 rounds include London-based Scope's €17.2 million raise for industrial inspection, London-based Orbital's €50 million Series B for AI-powered real estate law, and Paris-based Davis's €4.6 million pre-seed for automated architectural generation. Adjacent built-environment startups have collectively raised over €104 million this year, rising to about €111.9 million when Build's round is included. UK-based companies appear prominently in this sample.
Ophelia Cai, partner at Tiny.vc, said: "What stood out immediately about Build was the ambition of the vision and the speed of execution. James and Ben understood early that AI was about to move beyond software and begin transforming how real-world work gets done. Infrastructure remains one of the largest untapped opportunities for AI and Build is creating a completely new model for how critical projects are delivered."
Founded in 2024 by architect James Stirrat-Ellis and AI researcher Ben McClusky, Build aims to automate the entire development lifecycle-from site selection and due diligence through permitting, engineering, and asset management-creating what it calls "agentic real estate."
Why this matters for real estate and construction professionals
For teams managing site selection, due diligence, and pre-construction, Build's approach signals a shift toward AI that delivers actual work rather than simply improving software. The platform's ability to process thousands of constraints simultaneously and cut project timelines by over 95% can help avoid costly delays and allocate scarce resources to the most promising opportunities. As global infrastructure demand outpaces supply, tools that eliminate weeks or months from project schedules will directly impact how quickly critical projects break ground.
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