Business
AI Startup Bild Raises $3.1 Million for More Affordable Housing
A Columbia grad who was one of Google’s youngest engineers and a serial entrepreneur who built hundreds of homes starting at age 16 have their sights set on disrupting the construction industry with AI.
Roop Pal and Puneet Sukhija launched construction startup Bild AI in February and on Xday announced a $3.1 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Mission Street Capital, Ryan Sutton-Gee, and Ooshma Garg.
Bild uses AI to read blueprints and estimate the materials and costs associated with a project. This is currently a timely and error-prone process done by hand, Pal said.
The company, which consists of just Pal and Sukhija, will use its seed to hire engineers aggressively in order to expand its technology, Pal told BI.
The duo came up with the idea for Bild at a Hack for Social Impact event in San Francisco, and were accepted into Y Combinator within days of meeting.
“I was really mostly keen on the issue of affordable housing,” Pal, who also previously worked at Waymo, told BI. “There’s an opportunity to apply my knowledge in computer vision and AI to really make an impact.”
The startup’s early clients are material suppliers in the framing, flooring, and door businesses, predominantly for multifamily residences. The company makes money by charging subscription fees.
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By cutting down on presconstruction costs, Pal said Bild could also spell savings for renters. “If you have elastic housing markets,” he said, “this cost passes through and people save on rent.”
Material analysis is just the first layer of Bild’s vision, as it incorporates new sub-trades — such as windows and roofing — one by one.
As its blueprint-reading technology becomes more sophisticated, it will ultimately be used in the permitting process, Pal said, to catch compliance issues and cut down on the costly and bureaucratic back-and-forth for residential and non-residential projects alike.
“If you reduce 1% of the cost of a hospital, that’s another hospital that we have budget to build,” he said. “It can really make a big difference broadly.”
In addition to Bild, AI is also infiltrating other aspects of the construction industry, with firms like Shawmut and Suffolk relying on the technology to shore up worker safety.
BBC Scotland News
BBCEdinburgh Airport has lifted the 100ml rule for liquids being carried in hand luggage.
It will now be possible to take containers of up to two litres through security, and they will not need to be removed from bags.
The change comes after an extra two lanes and eight scanners costing £24m were installed at the international hub.
Edinburgh Airport is the first airport in Scotland to lift the rule. Birmingham airport has also lifted the rule.
There will be no limit on the number of containers that passengers can carry in their hand luggage, but metal water bottles will need to be emptied beforehand.
Items such as bottles of wine or large water bottles can also be taken on in cabin bags.
Smiths DetectionPassengers using the airport are also able to keep large electricals, such as iPads, tablets and laptops, in their hand luggage.
Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport, said it would allow passengers to move through security more easily than they currently do.
But he said passengers should check security rules at their return destination as other airports may not have moved away from the 100ml limit.
“A whole generation of travellers have only known the 100ml rule to be the case, so it really is a momentous day as we become the first airport in Scotland to lift the rule since it was introduced in 2006,” he said.
“The change allows more flexibility for passengers to take liquids through security, all while maintaining and improving our high safety levels through the use of 3D technology.”
What are the rules at Scotland’s airports?
Passengers at Glasgow and Aberdeen airports can leave liquids and electronics items, such as laptops and tablets, in cabin bags while going through security.
Liquids, which include creams, gels, pastes, sprays and aerosols, can be taken through in containers of up to 100ml in volume without using a plastic bag.
There is no limit on how many 100ml items passengers can bring.
At Inverness and Glasgow Prestwick airports, liquids, laptops and other electronic devices, including hairdryers, cameras and straighteners, must be removed from cabin bags and placed in a tray.
Liquids in a container of 100ml or less should be placed in a sealed 20cm x 20cm, one litre plastic bag.
Each passenger can only take one of these bags.
For Gartner vice president analyst DD Mishra, WNS’s investments in intelligent automation, analytics, and agentic solutions including its TRAC analytics suite and Malkom knowledge management platform will complement Capgemini’s existing technology and consulting strengths.
Sharath Srinivasamurthy, research vice president at IDC, pointed to the acquisitions WNS has itself made in recent months, including Kipi.ai, Smart Cube, and OptiBuy to enhance its data, analytics, and procurement stack and extend its proficiency in business process operations, said.
However, Rajesh Ranjan, managing partner at Everest Group, views the WNS acquisition as more of a strategic play rather than being focused on garnering more agentic tools or capabilities.
Locafy’s AI Search Platform Powers Visibility Across Organic and AI Search
New Product Lineup Tailored to Local, National, and e-Commerce Businesses
AI-Powered Tools Designed to Automate Engagement and Accelerate Online Presence
PERTH, Australia, July 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Locafy Limited (NASDAQ: LCFY, “Locafy”), a globally recognized leader in location-based digital marketing, today unveiled its FY26 suite of AI-powered SEO products. These solutions, now commercially available following successful market testing, are designed to deliver measurable improvements across organic, AI, and marketplace search results.
Locafy initially outlined its AI-powered publishing roadmap in December 2024, promising to streamline content production and improve cost-effective online visibility for businesses.
“We are excited to announce that we’ve delivered on that promise,” said Gavin Burnett, CEO of Locafy.
All of Locafy’s publishing and SEO products are designed to drive visibility in search engines and, increasingly, AI-driven search tools and marketplaces. Recent research shows these optimizations extend across both traditional and emerging search platforms.
“We’ve evolved our technology to influence not only search engine rankings but also AI search results,” said Burnett. “Our platform helps position our clients’ websites as authoritative sources for high-value keywords, across local, national, and e-commerce campaigns.”
Burnett added, “We’ve also automated the creation of AI-search-ready landing pages, opening up a greenfield opportunity for scaled monetization. Our U.S. directory includes more than 9.68 million direct business listings, and our citation management partners publish more than 28 million business listings across our directories. Each of these represents either a direct sales opportunity or a chance to collaborate with partners using the data we already publish on their behalf.”
Locafy is focused on three primary solution categories:
- Online Business Listings
- Local SEO
- AI-powered engagement tools
Online Business Listings
Locafy continues to assert that online business listings form the cornerstone of successful Local SEO. These listings supply structured data that fuels automated SEO product generation. Locafy currently publishes more than 9.5 million listings in the U.S. and remains focused on partnerships with citation management firms and multi-location businesses. It is also exploring acquisitions of databases, directories, and citation management assets.
The Total Addressable Market (TAM) for the Local SEO solution in their key target markets of USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK is more than 40 million businesses.
“We currently host more than 63 million business listings worldwide, of which more than 40 million are in the U.S., Canada, Australia and the UK,” said Burnett. “However, our direct sales opportunity is more than 11.4 million, plus we have more than 28 million listings that we publish on behalf of partners, who can now connect to our Platform to automate the production of our Local SEO products for their clients.”
| Country | Partner Added* | Claimed* |
| Australia | 2,145,707 | 652,351 |
| Canada | 1,533,479 | 289,274 |
| United Kingdom | 3,458,205 | 802,003 |
| United States of America | 33,076,154 | 9,684,329 |
| TOTAL | 40,213,545 | 11,427,957 |
Local SEO
The flagship solution, Localizer, integrates listing syndication, AI-search optimization, review management, and Google Map Pack enhancement.
“We haven’t seen another product that combines these capabilities—at a price point starting around
AI-powered Engagement Tools
In addition to improving search visibility, Locafy has developed a scalable, cost-effective AI Voice Concierge that can serve as a virtual receptionist, product expert, or customer service agent.
“This is our first step into AI-enabled customer engagement,” said Burnett. “Our Voice Concierge acts like a digital team member—it can take bookings, provide answers, and interact 24/7. Just feed it your business documents and it learns. We record and transcribe every interaction, giving clients full transparency.
“This kind of capability once felt like science fiction, but it’s here now—and Locafy is helping businesses adapt and thrive in an AI-powered world.”
Over the past six months, Locafy has streamlined its product suite, automated key production processes, and validated product performance through live testing. With this foundation in place, the Company is poised for commercial growth in FY2026.
While the company still offers solutions for National SEO and e-Commerce, it believes the immediate opportunity afforded by its breakthroughs in AI Search represents a larger and more scalable revenue opportunity with far greater automation already in place.
About Locafy
Locafy (Nasdaq: LCFY, LCFYW) is a globally recognized software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company specializing in local search engine marketing. Founded in 2009, Locafy’s mission is to revolutionize the US
Investor Relations Contact:
Matt Glover
Gateway Group, Inc.
(949) 574-3860
LCFY@gateway-grp.com
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