All Thibault Launay and his spouse Simi wished practically 5 years in the past was to construct a dream residence in Portugal, the place they each now stay.
However what they encountered as a substitute 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, acquired the development license in early 2022, and began constructing that 12 months. “That was supposed to complete in February 2024,” he mentioned. However it’s Could 2025, and the house nonetheless isn’t achieved.
“We realized,” he continued, “if we’re battling this, so are tens of millions of others.”
So Thibault, himself a serial founder and entrepreneur, and Simi, a guide and in addition a founder, launched Litehaus, an organization that touts to assist landowners and property builders construct properties in a extra environment friendly and sustainable means. It tackles a urgent want in each the U.S. and the European markets: the power to construct reasonably priced properties.
Litehaus, which launched early final 12 months, calls itself the “Uber of building,” with Thibault saying the corporate simply desires to attach all of the at present fragmented components of the home-building course of. It matches landowners and property builders with different professionals akin to building firms, 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 building, permitting us to construct 30% cheaper, 40% quicker, and 60% extra sustainably,” Thibault mentioned, including that meant 90% much less waste and 50% much less CO2 emissions in contrast with conventional building.
Others within the modular building house embody the US-based Ginosko Modular and Flummerfelt and the India-based Schnelle Prefabs, in response to Pitchbook.
Litehaus has not less than one U.S. building firm in its community because it seems to be to additional its enlargement within the nation. Proper now, it’s centered on changing into “Europe’s fastest-growing building tech startup,” Thibault mentioned.
Plus, the European building business might use extra innovation. Buyers in America pour billions of {dollars} into rising building know-how, and, as traditional, 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.Okay.’s Cornerstone VC, with participation from Explorer Fund, considered one of 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 dwelling as residence possession turns into more and more out of attain,” Rodney Appiah, a managing associate at Cornerstone VC, mentioned. “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 deliver better transparency, sustainability, high quality, and belief to the home-building course of.”
Thibault referred to as the fundraising journey “intense.” He mentioned he and Simi had identified their lead buyers for years via 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 firms, 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 ladies of coloration, and labored as a guide and strategist for numerous corporations on regulation and Africa.
“I’ve all the time wished to construct companies that change folks’s lives,” Simi informed TechCrunch. “Offering reasonably priced properties at scale isn’t only a market alternative—it’s one of the vital significant methods we are able to create deep, lasting impression.”
She is now answerable for advertising, 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 mentioned. He mentioned the contemporary capital might be used to assist scale the cash and rent extra expertise in engineering, product, advertising, and operations.
It’s fairly humorous that Thibault and Simi constructed an organization, raised over 1,000,000 euros, and had two children, earlier than their residence, a course of they began engaged on over 4 years in the past, was lastly completed.
“We are literally transferring in subsequent month,” Thibault mentioned. “We transfer in subsequent month after a 14-month delay on completion. That is the ache level we are attempting to resolve for tens of millions of individuals.”
