Build, a San Francisco-based real estate technology company, has closed an $8.5 million seed funding round to expand its artificial intelligence platform for property development. Index Ventures led the round, with participation from existing and new investors including Pebblebed, Puzzle Ventures, and Tiny.vc. Technology executives Sarah Friar and John Stecher also joined the round.
The capital will support growth of Build's engineering and infrastructure teams, according to the company. Build also plans to increase research and development spending and strengthen commercial operations across North America and Europe. The funding marks a key inflection point for the firm as it scales an AI-driven approach to automating stages of the real estate development process.
Build was founded by James Stirrat-Ellis and Ben McClusky. The company has developed a multi-agent AI system designed to assist with several stages of large-scale real estate projects. Its platform supports workflows including site sourcing, technical due diligence, power assessment, and early-stage structural planning.
According to Build, its infrastructure analysis workflows are connected to more than 1,600 data sources. The platform aggregates and processes data from utility networks, zoning databases, environmental records, and infrastructure maps to inform development feasibility assessments. The breadth of data integration positions the system to surface technical constraints and opportunities earlier in the project lifecycle than traditional manual analysis.
Build has deployed its AI systems across more than 100 projects for institutional clients. The company disclosed that Tishman Speyer, a New York-based real estate investment firm with a global portfolio, is among its users. The deployment base suggests the platform has moved beyond pilot stages and into production workflows at established development organizations.
The funding comes as institutional developers confront longer permitting timelines, rising construction costs, and tightening debt availability. AI tools that compress due diligence cycles or flag infrastructural bottlenecks could appeal to firms seeking to reduce predevelopment risk and capital exposure. Build's focus on power assessment is particularly relevant as data centre and industrial development accelerates in North America and Europe.
Index Ventures' decision to lead the round signals growing investor conviction that artificial intelligence can reshape capital-intensive stages of real estate development. The firm has backed technology companies across enterprise software and infrastructure sectors. Its involvement may accelerate Build's access to additional institutional capital and enterprise distribution channels.
The participation of Pebblebed, Puzzle Ventures, and Tiny.vc, alongside individual technology executives, reflects a syndicate structure common in seed-stage proptech rounds. Sarah Friar and John Stecher bring operating experience from technology firms, which could inform Build's product roadmap and go-to-market strategy as it scales into new geographies.
Build's expansion plans target North America and Europe, regions where institutional capital allocation to real estate development remains substantial despite macroeconomic headwinds. The company's emphasis on power assessment and infrastructure analysis aligns with rising demand for logistics facilities, life sciences campuses, and data centres that require specialised utility and structural planning.
The $8.5 million seed round positions Build to compete in a proptech landscape where automation, data integration, and predictive analytics are increasingly embedded in institutional development workflows. Whether AI-driven platforms can demonstrably reduce project risk or improve returns will determine their staying power as the development cycle matures.