Reimagining the jobsite with AI
At N47, we spend a lot of time exploring industries that are massive, structurally underserved by software, and ready for a step-change.
Trades and construction sit at the very top of that list.
Construction is a multi-trillion-dollar global market, yet it remains one of the least digitized sectors of the economy. Residential trades alone (roofing, HVAC, plumbing, concrete, landscaping) represent hundreds of billions in annual spend, powered by millions of small and mid-sized contractors who still rely on PDFs, spreadsheets, tacit knowledge, and manual workflows to price and sell work.
Despite this, labor has always been the largest component of any project cost.
With how incredible reasoning and vision language models have become, we believe the time is now for software to actually “do the work” rather than merely act as a copilot.
Early on, we identified estimating and takeoffs as manual tasks much better suited to machines. Estimating is the front door to every contractor’s business. It directly helps grow revenue but is a painfully manual process, with data living across unstructured, multimodal formats like PDFs, photos, supplier sheets, emails, etc., and needing to be reconciled against building codes and weather data. It’s also an incredibly difficult technical problem to solve, requiring the creation of proprietary datasets for each construction category.
Contractors win or lose jobs based not on the quality of work, but on how quickly and clearly they can generate an estimate.
This is where XBuild, the first AI platform purpose-built for construction, shines.
We’re thrilled to announce that N47 is leading XBuild’s $19M Series A, joined by Rackhouse Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.
Solving a mission-critical bottleneck
At the heart of every investment is the team, and it is the force behind XBuild that made this partnership so compelling to us.
Founded by former Uber and Postmates executives Jahan Khanna (former Sidecar co-founder & CTO) and Rob Moran, alongside civil engineer Sharuk Khanna, XBuild uniquely bridges deep construction expertise with Silicon Valley product and engineering excellence.
XBuild does AI-Native Estimating for the real world.
This past year, they’ve zeroed in on their core product and have accomplished:
• 15,000+ projects completed on the platform
• $250M+ in construction value processed
• 40,000+ contractor hours saved on estimating
That kind of early traction doesn’t happen unless you’re solving a mission-critical problem.
XBuild’s platform is agentic, chat-based, and trained on the actual inputs contractors use, not abstract data models.
The first time we saw the product, we were stunned.
XBuild’s first end-to-end product automates roofing estimations in under 15 minutes, a process that normally takes humans days of manual work.
Roofers upload EagleView, GAF QuickScope, or RoofR PDFs, snap photos from CompanyCam, and receive standardized, editable estimates in minutes. No demos. No onboarding. No templates.
Roofers work from aerial measurement reports, site photos, and supplier pricing. These inputs were never designed for software, but are perfect for AI.
When paired with real-world domain knowledge, AI can compress hours of work into minutes, with accuracy that improves over time. XBuild’s advanced AI system, inspired by self-driving architectures, can reason through decision-making in very complex scenarios. XBuild is purpose-built for this reality.
Building an AI system of record for the physical world
Roofing is only the beginning.
XBuild is expanding into concrete, landscaping, painting, windows and doors, glass and glazing, insulation, HVAC, and plumbing. Each of these industries have the same structural inefficiencies and massive market size.
We believe XBuild has the opportunity to become:
• The system of intelligence for contractors
• A source of truth between contractor and homeowner
• A foundational layer for making the physical world cheaper, faster, and easier to build
As founder, Jahan Khanna puts it:
“Construction and the cost of building is the last space that truly has not been disrupted by technology. It is the final frontier—and AI will be the catalyst that makes building more affordable for everyone.”
We agree.
At N47, we partner with founders building companies that don’t just modernize workflows but reshape industries. XBuild is doing exactly that for construction, and we’re proud to lead this next chapter.
