Solvera, an Oslo-based startup, has raised $6.3 million in a pre-seed funding round to develop an artificial intelligence-native engineering firm focused on the construction industry. The round was led by Seedcamp, with participation from Construct Venture, Inception Fund, Momentum, Obos Ventures, PSV Tech, Sondo, and The Nordic Web Ventures. Angel investors Anders Kvåle and Håvard Haukeland also backed the round.
The company specializes in automating mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) design—a critical component of construction projects that typically requires significant manual engineering effort. Rather than creating another software tool layered on top of traditional workflows, Solvera is reimagining how engineering work itself is organized and delivered in the modern AI era.
Rethinking the engineering firm model
According to Arif Mirza, CEO of Solvera, the construction engineering sector has seen incremental improvements over two decades but fundamental productivity gains remain elusive. “We’ve had twenty years of better building engineering software, and now AI, but productivity and the fundamental way engineering gets delivered has barely changed,” Mirza stated. “Technology is only part of the answer. To capture its full potential, you also have to rethink how the firm operates and how it makes money. That is incredibly difficult to do inside organizations built around thousands of people, active projects and billable hours. That is why we decided not to build yet another tool for engineers that doesn’t move the needle in how work gets done. We are building the engineering firm itself around AI.”
Capital deployment and expansion plans
The fresh capital will support several strategic initiatives for the startup. Solvera plans to expand its engineering and technology team in its Oslo headquarters, establish a new office in London to serve the broader European market, and continue developing its proprietary AI operating system. These moves position the company to scale operations across multiple geographies while maintaining technical development momentum.
The funding round reflects growing investor interest in AI applications within traditionally non-tech sectors. Construction remains one of Europe’s largest industries by economic value, yet has been slower to adopt advanced technologies compared to other sectors.
European construction tech landscape
Solvera’s emergence highlights a broader trend within the European startup ecosystem: leveraging artificial intelligence to address productivity challenges in established industries. Norwegian investors have been particularly active in backing construction and real estate technology ventures, recognizing both the market size and the potential for transformative impact. With backing from regional venture capital firms and international players like Seedcamp, Solvera joins a growing cohort of European startups attempting to modernize the built environment through AI-driven automation and reimagined business models.