All Thibault Launay and his spouse Simi wished almost 5 years in the past was to construct a dream residence in Portugal, the place they each now reside.
However what they encountered as a substitute was a damaged system. “Fourteen months of delays, 20% funds overruns, and infinite stress managing over 10 subcontractors,” Thibault recalled. They purchased the land in December 2020, obtained the development license in early 2022, and began constructing that 12 months. “That was supposed to complete in February 2024,” he stated. However it’s Could 2025, and the house nonetheless isn’t carried out.
“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 marketing consultant and in addition a founder, launched Litehausan organization that touts to assist landowners and property builders construct houses in a extra environment friendly and sustainable manner. 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 presently fragmented components of the home-building course of. It matches landowners and property builders with different professionals equivalent to development corporations, architects, contractors, and inside designers. The corporate permits customers to trace prices, coordinate schedules with the employed employees, 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% sooner, 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, based on Pitchbook.
Litehaus has at the least one U.S. development firm in its community because it seems to additional its enlargement 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 might use extra innovation. Traders in America pour billions of {dollars} into rising development know-how, and, as normal, there’s a lot room for the European tech business to catch up.
Traders right here and throughout the pond clearly agree. Final week, Litehaus introduced a €1.46 million pre-seed spherical, co-led by the U.Ok.’s Cornerstone VC and 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, additionally participated within the spherical.
“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, 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 larger transparency, sustainability, high quality, and belief to the home-building course of.”
Picture Credit:Courtesy of Thibault and Simi Launay
Thibault referred to as the fundraising journey “intense.” He stated he and Simi had recognized their lead buyers for years by means of mutual pals. 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, based mostly 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 up to date artwork gallery, a wellness model for girls of colour, and labored as a marketing consultant and strategist for numerous companies on legislation and Africa.
“I’ve all the time wished 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 some of the significant methods we will create deep, lasting affect.”
She is now answerable for advertising and marketing, communication, and design at Litehaus; her husband, Thibault, handles fundraising, enterprise growth, 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 will probably be used to assist scale the corporate 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 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 stated. “We transfer in subsequent month after a 14-month delay on completion. That is the ache level we are attempting to unravel for thousands and thousands of individuals.”
This story was up to date to replicate who co-led the spherical.
