All Thibault Launay and his wife, Simi, wanted nearly five years ago was to build a dream home in Portugal, where they both now live.
But what they encountered instead was a broken system. “Fourteen months of delays, 20% budget overruns, and endless stress managing over 10 subcontractors,” Thibault recalled. They bought the land in December 2020, got the construction license in early 2022, and started building that year. “That was supposed to finish in February 2024,” he said. But it’s May 2025, and the home still isn’t done.
“We realized,” he continued, “if we’re struggling with this, so are millions of others.”
So Thibault, himself a serial founder and entrepreneur, and Simi, a consultant and also a founder, launched Litehaus, a company that touts to help landowners and property developers build homes in a more efficient and sustainable way. It tackles a pressing need in both the U.S. and the European markets: the ability to build affordable homes.
Litehaus, which launched early last year, calls itself the “Uber of construction,” with Thibault saying the company just wants to connect all the currently fragmented parts of the home-building process. It matches landowners and property developers with other professionals such as construction companies, architects, contractors, and interior designers. The company allows users to track costs, coordinate schedules with the hired workers, and track the progress of the building in real time.
“As a go-to-market strategy, we decided to focus mainly on modular construction, allowing us to build 30% cheaper, 40% faster, and 60% more sustainably,” Thibault said, adding that meant 90% less waste and 50% less CO2 emissions compared with traditional construction.
Others in the modular construction space include the U.S.-based Ginosko Modular and Flummerfelt and the India-based Schnelle Prefabs, according to PitchBook.
Litehaus has at least one U.S. construction company in its network as it looks to further its expansion in the country. Right now, it is focused on becoming “Europe’s fastest-growing construction tech startup,” Thibault said.
Plus, the European construction industry could use more innovation. Investors in America pour billions of dollars into rising construction technology, and, as usual, there is much room for the European tech industry to catch up.
Investors here and across the pond clearly agree. Last week, Litehaus announced a €1.46 million pre-seed round, co-led by the U.K.’s Cornerstone VC and Explorer Fund, one of Portugal’s largest private equity funds. Claster Group, a Luxembourgish family office, and angel investor Pascal Levy, a venture partner at Long Journey Ventures here in the U.S., also participated in the round.
“The shortage of housing across Europe has triggered a crisis, driving up the cost of living as home ownership becomes increasingly out of reach,” Rodney Appiah, a managing partner at Cornerstone VC, said. “When I first met Thibault and Simi, I was struck by their compelling vision: to make building a home as simple as buying one, catalyzing the construction industry to bring greater transparency, sustainability, quality, and trust to the home-building process.”
Thibault called the fundraising journey “intense.” He said he and Simi had known their lead investors for years through mutual friends. Thibault, who is from France, is the founder of an immersive gaming studio in Portugal, but he has also invested in numerous companies, both as an angel investor and through his work at firms 50 Partners and Origins, based in France and New York, respectively. Before that, he worked at a French mining company and in green tech.
Simi, meanwhile, was born in Nigeria and grew up in London. She ran a contemporary art gallery, a wellness brand for women of color, and worked as a consultant and strategist for various firms on law and Africa.
“I’ve always wanted to build businesses that change people’s lives,” Simi told TechCrunch. “Providing affordable homes at scale isn’t just a market opportunity — it’s one of the most meaningful ways we can create deep, lasting impact.”
She is now in charge of marketing, communication, and design at Litehaus, while Thibault handles fundraising, business development, and tech.
“When it came time to raise, we moved quickly with partners who already knew us and shared our vision from day one,” Thibault said. He said the fresh capital will be used to help scale the company and hire more talent in engineering, product, marketing, and operations.
It’s quite funny that Thibault and Simi built a company, raised over a million euros, and had two kids, before their home, a process they started working on over four years ago, was finally finished.
“We are actually moving in next month,” Thibault said. “We move in next month after a 14-month delay on completion. This is the pain point we are trying to solve for millions of people.”
This story was updated to reflect who co-led the round.