Cascade raises $3.5M to help construction firms find and win projects

Cascade, a startup gathering a level to assistance architecture, engineering and operation firms find and triumph projects, has raised a $3.5 cardinal effect circular from Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures, and Snowball VC.

Launched successful 2025, Cascade is simply a effect of its founders, Hannia Zia and Joana Ferreira, witnessing first-hand the trouble operation businesses look with predictably securing work.

“My parent worked successful a institution that sold materials to operation companies, and my uncle built mansions successful the Middle East. They’re unthinkable astatine their trade but conscionable don’t person entree to the close tools to get much work,” Ferreira told TechCrunch. And Zia recalled the clip her begetter tried starting a operation concern backmost successful her autochthonal Pakistan: “He conscionable couldn’t get capable projects to prolong himself.”

Zia describes the existent process of uncovering operation projects arsenic a “constant treasure hunt,” with firms having to log into each U.S. state, city, district, county, and national agency’s portals. “So if you’re truly bully astatine gathering suspension bridges, you person to find each of those opportunities crossed these disparate portals.” 

Cascade aims to assistance architecture, operation and engineering firms connected this beforehand by tracking ongoing and upcoming projects, and past utilizing anterior tender information to foretell which developers are apt to triumph the deals.

Here’s however the level works: A institution signs up to the platform, and past Cascade uses AI tools to find which projects they person the champion accidental of winning. It besides predicts what projects are coming up, utilizing antithetic signals and information points crossed U.S. states, section districts, backstage contracts, and national agencies. For example, if a authorities announces a $100 cardinal affordable lodging grant, Cascade volition show which developers won the assistance the past clip it was announced. 

“We link that data, and we archer our customers: ‘Most apt 1 of these 5 developers volition triumph this recently announced grant, truthful spell commencement talking to them to triumph projects,’” Ferreira explained.

The duo applied to A16z’s speedrun past September. They said the unit to bash good connected demo time and being astir the “brilliance” of different founders helped the institution motion contracts with firms that person built the JFK and La Guardia airports, Four Seasons hotels, and immoderate information centers. “Speedrun gave america visibility and a stamp of support to adjacent large deals,” Zia said.

The startup volition usage the caller currency to spell to market, big manufacture events and prosecute much engineers. 

Other startups successful this country see GovWin IQ and ConstructConnect, but Ferreira argues Cascade is simply a spot much AI-native than these platforms.

“Every clip a lawsuit wins a bid, they springiness feedback, truthful the strategy keeps getting smarter. Over time, we’ll person a implicit representation of the manufacture that our AI tin traverse to foretell the champion projects and leads for each customer,” she said.