Talk to many architects, and they are going to probably inform you that Autodesk software, including AutoCAD and Revit, has been vital for their work for a long time.
But despite their widespread use, there have been co-Co-CEOs and product director, Amar Hanspal, claims that the architectural, engineering and construction industry (AEC) uses the tools of the twentieth century to design the twenty first century buildings. His latest startup, Theme -Firma, which Hanspal describes as “a new generation design platform for buildings”-it has to vary it. He now raised $ 46 million for this effort.
Hanspal strives for a problem on the heels of a long profession already in the space of AEC technology. He spent about 20 years at Autodesk, and then in 2018 co -founder of Bright Machines, firms with production automation (which collected significant financing itself). Six years later, Hanspal left the vivid machines and was looking for the next act.
Its exploration of the AEC industry revealed significant frustration among architects of existing software, which is largely not based on the cloud and can take as much as 45 minutes to process even easy editions.
In 2023, Hanspal joined forces with Brian Mathews, a former CTO product in Autodesk to work on the motif.
The first Motif product won’t be ready for the first half of this 12 months, but Hanspal gave a rough picture of what it might be. He said that MOTIF is working on building a platform that might offer a set of native 3D -assisted computer -assisted tools, which is able to have elements of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
$ 46 million, which the startup has now collected, is a combination of funds from seeds and series A. Series A was run by Capitalg, the Alphabet growth fund, and Redpoint Ventures led the seed round.
Partner Capitalg, Jill Chase, told Techcrunch that he is studying software for architects before meeting the motif. She noticed that this is a very large market with outdated products.
She wondered why the existing tools were still not disturbed, and learned that placing 3D architecture models in the cloud is technically very difficult.
Chase said that in addition to the complexity of engineering, the sale of these tools will be difficult. “You must have some element of trust and relationships with large architectural companies to even let you into the door.”
When she met Hanspaal and Mathews, she immediately knew that their total 40 -year experience in the AEC software industry would help them create a company that would accept the sought.
As for why the first product is released for so long, Hanspal compared Motif’s efforts about the design of the Figma company, which was in secret mode for three years Before issuing anything.
“This is a very large and ambitious undertaking, which we know that it will make a significant effort to get married,” said Hanspal.
Motif is not alone in attempts to disrupt the AEC software. Other startups in the sector are Snaptrude and Arcol.
But Hanspal is sure that Motif has the best probability to win in this market.
“Really requires a very unique team that is ready to do hard work,” he said. “I think it’s us.”