All Thibault Launay and his spouse Simi needed almost 5 years in the past was to construct a dream dwelling in Portugal, the place they each now stay.
However what they encountered as an alternative was a damaged system. “Fourteen months of delays, 20% price range overruns, and infinite stress managing over 10 subcontractors,” Thibault recalled. They purchased the land in December 2020, received the development license in early 2022, and began constructing that yr. “That was supposed to complete in February 2024,” he stated. But it surely’s Might 2025, and the house nonetheless isn’t performed.
“We realized,” he continued, “if we’re scuffling with this, so are thousands and thousands of others.”
So Thibault, himself a serial founder and entrepreneur, and Simi, a guide and likewise a founder, launched Litehaus, an organization that touts to assist landowners and property builders construct houses in a extra environment friendly and sustainable method. It tackles a urgent want in each the U.S. and the European markets: the flexibility to construct reasonably priced houses.
Litehaus, which launched early final yr, calls itself the “Uber of development,” with Thibault saying the corporate simply desires to attach all of the at the moment fragmented components of the home-building course of. It matches landowners and property builders with different professionals corresponding to development corporations, architects, contractors, and inside designers. The corporate permits customers to trace prices, coordinate schedules with the employed staff, and observe the progress of the constructing in actual time.
“As a go-to-market technique, we determined to focus primarily on modular development, permitting us to construct 30% cheaper, 40% quicker, and 60% extra sustainably,” Thibault stated, including that meant 90% much less waste and 50% much less CO2 emissions in contrast with conventional development.
Others within the modular development house embody the US-based Ginosko Modular and Flummerfelt and the India-based Schnelle Prefabs, in response to Pitchbook.
Litehaus has no less than one U.S. development firm in its community because it seems to additional its enlargement within the nation. Proper now, it’s targeted on turning into “Europe’s fastest-growing development tech startup,” Thibault stated.
Plus, the European development business might use extra innovation. Buyers in America pour billions of {dollars} into rising development expertise, and, as regular, there may be a lot room for the European tech business to catch up.
Buyers right here and throughout the pond clearly agree. Final week, Litehaus introduced a €1.46 million pre-seed spherical, led by the U.Ok.’s Cornerstone VC, with participation from Explorer Fund, considered one of Portugal’s largest personal fairness funds; Claster Group, a Luxembourgish household workplace; and angel investor Pascal Levy, a enterprise companion at Lengthy Journey Ventures right here within the U.S.
“The scarcity of housing throughout Europe has triggered a disaster, driving up the price of residing as dwelling possession turns into more and more out of attain,” Rodney Appiah, a managing companion at Cornerstone VC, stated. “Once I first met Thibault and Simi, I used to be struck by their compelling imaginative and prescient: to make constructing a house so simple as shopping for one, catalysing the development business to deliver better transparency, sustainability, high quality, and belief to the home-building course of.”
Thibault referred to as the fundraising journey “intense.” He stated he and Simi had identified their lead traders for years via mutual mates. Thibault, who’s from France, is the founding father of an immersive gaming studio in Portugal, however has additionally invested in quite a few corporations, each as an angel investor and thru his work at corporations 50 Companions and Origins, primarily based in France and New York, respectively. Earlier than that, he labored at a French mining firm and in inexperienced tech.
Simi, in the meantime, was born in Nigeria and grew up in London. She ran a recent artwork gallery, a wellness model for girls of coloration, and labored as a guide and strategist for varied corporations on regulation and Africa.
“I’ve at all times needed to construct companies that change individuals’s lives,” Simi advised TechCrunch. “Offering reasonably priced houses at scale isn’t only a market alternative—it’s one of the vital significant methods we will create deep, lasting influence.”
She is now in control of advertising and marketing, communication, and design at Litehaus; her husband, Thibault, handles fundraising, enterprise improvement, and tech.
“When it got here time to lift, we moved rapidly with companions who already knew us and shared our imaginative and prescient from day one,” Thibault stated. He stated the contemporary capital shall be used to assist scale the cash and rent extra expertise in engineering, product, advertising and marketing, and operations.
It’s fairly humorous that Thibault and Simi constructed an organization, raised over 1,000,000 euros, and had two youngsters, earlier than their dwelling, a course of they began engaged on over 4 years in the past, was lastly completed.
“We are literally transferring in subsequent month,” Thibault stated. “We transfer in subsequent month after a 14-month delay on completion. That is the ache level we try to unravel for thousands and thousands of individuals.”
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