Cascade raises $3.5M seed to help construction firms find and win projects

Cascade, a startup building a platform to help architecture, engineering, and construction firms find and win projects, has raised a $3.5 million seed round from Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures, and Snowball VC, TechCrunch reported. Launched in 2025 by Hannia Zia and Joana Ferreira, Cascade tracks ongoing and upcoming projects and uses prior tender data to predict which developers are likely to win deals. Zia described today's process as a constant treasure hunt across U.S. state, city, district, county, and federal portals. After a company signs up, Cascade uses AI tools to score which projects the firm has the best chance of winning and to forecast upcoming work from signals across those public sources plus private contracts. Ferreira told TechCrunch that if a state announces a large affordable housing grant, Cascade can monitor which developers won the last round and flag likely winners of the new award so customers can approach them early. The founders said they applied to a16z Speedrun last September and that demo-day pressure and visibility helped them sign contracts with firms that have built the JFK and La Guardia airports, Four Seasons hotels, and some data centers. Cascade plans to use the new capital to go to market, host industry events, and hire more engineers. Ferreira argued the product is more AI-native than incumbents such as GovWin IQ and ConstructConnect, with customer bid-win feedback intended to improve predictions over time toward a fuller map of industry leads.