The whole Thibault rope and his wife Simi wanted almost five years ago to build a dream house in Portugal, where they each live now.
But as a substitute, a broken system met. “Fourteen months of delays, 20% of the budget exceeding and endless managing stress over 10 subcontractors,” Thibault remembered. They bought land in December 2020, received a license for construction at the starting of 2022 and began building this 12 months. “It was supposed to end in February 2024.” – he said. But it is May 2025, and the house is still not ready.
“We realized,” he continued – if we fight it, like thousands and thousands of others. ”
Thus, Thibault, the serial founder and the entrepreneur, in addition to Simi, the consultant, in addition to the founder, was launched LitehausAn organization that promotes land owners and developers in building houses in a more efficient and balanced way. He deals with an urgent need on each US markets and European markets: the ability to build inexpensive houses.
Litehaus, which began at the starting of last 12 months, is called “Uber of Construction” and Thibault says that the company simply wants to connect all the fragmentary parts of the house building process. He adapts land and developers owners with other professionals, resembling construction firms, architects, contractors and interior designers. The company allows users to track costs, coordinate schedules with employees and track the progress of the building in real time.
“As a strategy, we decided to focus mainly on modular construction, which allows us to build 30% cheaper, 40% faster and 60% more balanced,” said Thibault, adding that it meant 90% less waste and 50% less CO2 emissions compared to traditional design.
Others in the modular construction space include American modular and Flummerfelt Ginosko and Schnelle Indian prefabrices, according to Pitchbook.
Litehaus has at least one American construction company on its network, which goals to expand further in the country. At the moment, he focuses on becoming “the fastest growing startup of construction technology in Europe,” said Thibault.
In addition, the European construction industry can use more innovations. Investors in America pour billions of dollars on the growing construction technology and, as usual, the European technology industry has a lot of space to catch up.
Investors here and through the pond clearly agree. Last week, Litehaus announced a pre -seed round price EUR 1.46 million, jointly run by British Cornerstone VC and Explorer Fund, one of the largest private equity funds in Portugal. Claster Group, Luxembourg Family Office and investor Angel Pascal Levy, partner Venture at Long Journey Ventures here in the USA, also participated in the round.
“A shortage of apartments throughout Europe caused a crisis, increasing the costs of living, because the ownership of the house is becoming more and more out of reach,” said Rodney Appiah, managing partner at Cornerstone VC. “When I first met Thibault and Simi, I was struck by their convincing vision: to build a house as simple as buying one, catalyzing the construction industry in order to increase transparency, balanced development, quality and trust in the process of building a home.”
Thibault called the “intensive” journey. He said that he and Simi have known their leading investors for years through joint friends. Thibault, which comes from France, is the founding father of an engaging game studio in Portugal, but also invested in many firms, each as an angel investor and thanks to his work in 50 Partners and Origins based in France and New York, respectively. Earlier he worked in a French mining company and Green Tech.
Meanwhile, Simi was born in Nigeria and grew up in London. She ran a gallery of latest art, a brand of biological renewal for women in color, and worked as a consultant and a strategist for various legal firms and Africa.
“I’ve always wanted to build companies that change people’s lives,” said Simi for Techcrunch. “Providing inexpensive houses on a large scale is not just a market opportunity – this is one of the most significant ways to deep, lasting influence.”
Now she is responsible for marketing, communication and design in Litehaus; Her husband, Thibault, deals with funds, business development and technology.
“When the time came to lift, we quickly moved with the partners who already knew us and shared our vision from the first day,” said Thibault. He said that fresh capital can be used to scale the company and employ more talents in the field of engineering, product, marketing and surgery.
It is quite funny that Thibault and Simi built a company, collected over a million euros and had two children, in front of their house, the process on which they began working over 4 years ago was finally accomplished.
“We actually move next month,” said Thibault. “We move next month after a 14-month delay after completion. This is a pain point that we try to solve for millions of people.”