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Cascade Raises $3.5 Million to Help Construction Firms Spot Projects Early

The seed round will fund engineering and sales hires to scale an AI system that scans permits, filings and public records to surface likely project opportunities before bids are published.

Overview

  • Cascade announced the $3.5 million seed round on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, with lead investment from Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun and participation from Ada Ventures, Blitzscaling Ventures, Indico Capital, shuckerVC, G2C Ventures and Snowball VC.
  • The New York and London‑based startup uses AI to continuously ingest thousands of early signals such as bond filings, permits, property transactions, budget notices and meeting minutes to predict where construction work is forming before formal procurement.
  • Founders Hannia Zia and Joana Ferreira built the product from prior work at Google and UnlikelyAI and say the platform scores opportunities for suitability, links them to existing relationships in tools like Outlook and LinkedIn, and learns when clients win work.
  • Cascade reports roughly 20 customers and says its platform has surfaced about $10 billion in potential opportunities with client examples including a reported $6 million win for Smallwood, though these metrics are company‑reported and reflect early commercial traction rather than mature market share.
  • The funding will be used to hire engineers, expand go‑to‑market activity and enter markets such as the UK, a move that could speed adoption of predictive tools in an industry that still finds work through manual searches and personal networks.