Cascade, a startup that helps architecture, engineering, and construction firms identify and secure projects, has raised a $3.5 million seed round, the company announced in July 2026. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, with participation from Ada Ventures and Snowball VC.
Founded in 2025 by Hannia Zia and Joana Ferreira, Cascade was built in response to a problem both founders observed in their own families. Ferreira’s mother worked at a company supplying materials to construction firms, and her uncle ran a construction business in the Middle East. Zia’s father attempted to start a construction business in Pakistan but struggled to secure enough projects to sustain it. “He just couldn’t get enough projects to sustain himself,” Zia said.
The platform addresses what Zia describes as a “constant treasure hunt” — construction firms currently must log into separate portals for each U.S. state, city, district, county, and federal agency to find available work. Cascade aggregates this data and uses AI to identify which projects a given firm has the best chance of winning, while also predicting upcoming opportunities based on signals across public and private sources.
For example, if a state announces a $100 million affordable housing grant, Cascade tracks which developers won the same grant previously and alerts customers to engage those likely winners. “We connect that data, and we tell our customers: ‘Most likely one of these five developers will win this newly announced grant, so go start talking to them to win projects,'” Ferreira explained.
After joining the a16z Speedrun accelerator program, Cascade signed contracts with firms involved in building JFK and LaGuardia airports, Four Seasons hotels, and several data centers. Competitors in the space include GovWin IQ and ConstructConnect, though Ferreira positions Cascade as more AI-native, with a feedback loop that refines its predictions each time a customer wins a bid.
Cascade plans to use the new funding for go-to-market efforts, industry events, and engineering hires.
Source: TechCrunch