All Thibault Launay and his spouse Simi needed almost 5 years in the past was to construct a dream house in Portugal, the place they each now stay.
However what they encountered as an alternative was a damaged system. “Fourteen months of delays, 20% funds overruns, and countless 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 12 months. “That was supposed to complete in February 2024,” he stated. Nevertheless it’s Could 2025, and the house nonetheless isn’t achieved.
“We realized,” he continued, “if we’re combating this, so are hundreds of thousands of others.”
So Thibault, himself a serial founder and entrepreneur, and Simi, a advisor and in addition a founder, launched Litehaus, an organization that touts to assist landowners and property builders construct houses in a extra environment friendly and sustainable approach. It tackles a urgent want in each the U.S. and the European markets: the power to construct reasonably priced houses.
Litehaus, which launched early final 12 months, calls itself the “Uber of development,” with Thibault saying the corporate simply needs to attach all of the at present fragmented elements 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 monitor 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 embrace the US-based Ginosko Modular and Flummerfelt and the India-based Schnelle Prefabs, in accordance with Pitchbook.
Litehaus has not less than one U.S. development firm in its community because it seems to be to additional its growth within the nation. Proper now, it’s centered on turning into “Europe’s fastest-growing development tech startup,” Thibault stated.
Plus, the European development business may use extra innovation. Buyers in America pour billions of {dollars} into rising development expertise, and, as common, there’s 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, one in all Portugal’s largest non-public fairness funds; Claster Group, a Luxembourgish household workplace; and angel investor Pascal Levy, a enterprise associate 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 house possession turns into more and more out of attain,” Rodney Appiah, a managing associate at Cornerstone VC, stated. “After 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 convey larger transparency, sustainability, high quality, and belief to the home-building course of.”
Thibault known as the fundraising journey “intense.” He stated he and Simi had identified their lead buyers for years by mutual associates. 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 companies 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 colour, and labored as a advisor and strategist for numerous companies on regulation and Africa.
“I’ve all the time needed to construct companies that change folks’s lives,” Simi informed TechCrunch. “Offering reasonably priced houses at scale isn’t only a market alternative—it’s one of the vital significant methods we are able to create deep, lasting influence.”
She is now in command of advertising and marketing, communication, and design at Litehaus; her husband, Thibault, handles fundraising, enterprise growth, and tech.
“When it got here time to boost, we moved shortly with companions who already knew us and shared our imaginative and prescient from day one,” Thibault stated. He stated the recent capital will likely 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 one million euros, and had two youngsters, earlier than their house, a course of they began engaged on over 4 years in the past, was lastly completed.
“We are literally shifting in subsequent month,” Thibault stated. “We transfer in subsequent month after a 14-month delay on completion. That is the ache level we are attempting to unravel for hundreds of thousands of individuals.”