Klutch AI Raises $8M to Build the AI Workforce for Construction
Despite decades of digital transformation elsewhere, construction sites remain stubbornly analog. Most project managers still juggle text threads, email chains, and spreadsheets while 96% of construction data goes untapped. Klutch AI thinks it’s time to bring that chaos under control—starting with AI agents that actually understand how construction works.
The company officially launched today with $8 million in seed funding, led by Bain Capital Ventures and Bling Capital, alongside Brick & Mortar Ventures, Original Capital, Anthology Fund, and notable angels from Autodesk and BuildZoom. Klutch plans to use the funds to deepen its AI workflow capabilities and integrate with industry staples like Procore, PlanGrid, and Buildertrend.
AI Agents That Do More Than Just Chat
At its core, Klutch doesn’t just tack GPT onto existing tools. It embeds field-ready AI agents—nicknamed Archie, Bob, Petra, and Hailey—that automate key workflows across permitting, jobsite documentation, procurement, and warranty ops. These agents don’t just sit in dashboards. They listen to your texts, sift through jobsite photos, and ping the right stakeholders before issues snowball.
- Archie AI: Reviews zoning codes and permits for faster approvals
- Bob AI: Captures punch items and safety issues via SMS or WhatsApp
- Petra AI: Handles bid leveling, vendor scoring, and estimates
- Hailey AI: Tracks warranty tickets and ties them back to vendor performance
If that sounds like an actual team instead of software, that’s kind of the point.
“The future of construction isn’t forcing field teams to adopt complex software,” said Xu Rui, Klutch’s CEO and cofounder. “It’s AI that works within their existing habits.”
Xu, a former Stripe product leader and real estate investor, founded Klutch with CTO Tanin Na Nakorn, also an alum of Stripe’s ML and analytics teams. The pair saw how other industries were benefitting from AI-driven workflows—and how construction, a $2 trillion sector, was still stuck in the 2000s.
Why Construction Needs This—Now
While the broader world of enterprise SaaS has evolved toward automation, construction software has been playing catch-up. Yes, platforms like Procore and Autodesk Construction Cloud offer project management tools, but they rely heavily on manual data entry and siloed workflows—something Klutch is specifically built to avoid.
The pitch: Construction teams using Klutch can save 10+ hours a week, cut site visits, and reduce costly rework. Early users are already seeing faster timelines and better vendor coordination—all while capturing 10x more jobsite data in far less time.
“Construction is one of the largest, least-digitized sectors in the economy,” said Kevin Zhang, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “Xu Rui’s experience and product vision make her uniquely equipped to modernize this space.”
Ben Ling of Bling Capital added: “With AI advancements, there’s an opening to build a compound startup—something we saw firsthand at Rippling and Palantir.”
That’s no small comparison. But it speaks to how investors are framing Klutch: not as a feature company, but as the nucleus of a new construction OS powered by AI agents.
The Bigger Picture: A Digital Twin for Construction Workflows
In a world where generative AI is often used to summarize emails or write marketing copy, Klutch takes a more grounded approach—automation that’s tangible and tied to measurable outcomes. It doesn’t promise to replace workers but to extend their capabilities, especially in the messy, high-stakes world of physical builds.
This positions Klutch in a growing wave of vertical AI startups that serve niche, operationally complex industries—from logistics to manufacturing to construction—by automating repetitive workflows and surfacing insights from unstructured data.
As AI adoption matures, expect to see more startups like Klutch carving out a space not with general-purpose copilots but with domain-specific agents that know your industry as well as your best foreman.
Power Tomorrow’s Intelligence — Build It with TechEdgeAI.
