Thibault Launay and his wife, Simi, wanted to build their dream home in Portugal almost five years ago.
But instead, what they encountered was a broken system. “14 months of delays, 20% budget overruns, and endless stress managing over 10 subcontractors,” recalls Thibault. They purchased the land in December 2020, obtained a construction license in early 2022, and began construction that year. “It was supposed to end in February 2024,” he said. But it was May 2025 and the house is not finished yet.
“We’ve noticed,” he continued.
So, Simi, the founder, entrepreneur, consultant and founder of Cereal, has launched Litehaus, a company that promotes to help landowners and property developers build homes in a more efficient and sustainable way. It addresses the pressing needs in its ability to build affordable homes both in the US and European markets.
Released early last year, Litehaus is called “Uber of Construction” in itself, and Thibault says the company wants to connect all the pieces that are currently fragmented into the home building process. Match landowners and real estate developers with other professionals, such as construction companies, architects, contractors, interior designers and more. The company allows users to track costs, coordinate schedules with hired workers, and track building progress in real time.
“As a strategy to go to the market, we decided to focus primarily on modular structures, allowing us to build 30% cheaper, 40% faster and 60% sustainably,” Thibault added.
Others in the modular construction space include US-based Ginosko Modular and Flummerfelt, and India-based Schnelle Prefabs.
Litehaus has at least one US construction company in its network as it aims to further expand domestically. The focus is now on becoming “the fastest growing construction technology startup in Europe,” Thibaud said.
Furthermore, the European construction industry can use more innovation. American investors have poured billions of dollars into billions of construction technology, and as always, there’s plenty of room for the European tech industry to keep up.
Investors here and across the pond clearly agree. Last week, Litehaus announced a 1.46 million euro seed round co-led by UK Cornerstone VC and Explorer Fund, one of Portugal’s largest private equity funds. Luxembourg family office Claster Group and Angel Investor Pascal Levy, a venture partner of Long Journey Ventures in the US, also participated in the round.
“The shortage of housing across Europe has caused a crisis and has pushed the cost of living as home ownership gets out of reach,” said Rodney Apia, managing partner at Cornerstone VC. “When I first met Thibault and Simi, I was impressed by their persuasive vision. Building a house just as easily as building a house, catalyzes the construction industry and brings transparency, sustainability, quality and trust to the home building process.”
Thibault calls the fundraising journey “intense.” He said he and Simmi had known their chief investors for years through mutual friends. Thibault, a native of France, is the founder of an immersive gaming studio in Portugal, but has also invested in many companies as an angel investor and through his work at Firms 50 Partners and Origins, which are based in France and New York, respectively. Before that, he worked for a French mining company and Green Tech.
Meanwhile, Simi was born in Nigeria and grew up in London. She ran the Contemporary Art Gallery, a wellness brand for women of color, and worked as a consultant and strategist for various companies in law and Africa.
“I’ve always wanted to build a business that will change people’s lives,” Simi told TechCrunch. “Providing affordable homes of scale on a large scale is more than just a market opportunity. It is one of the most meaningful ways that can create deep and lasting impacts.”
She is currently in charge of marketing, communications and design at Litehaus, while Thibault handles funding, business development and technology.
“When it was time to grow up, we moved quickly with our partners who already knew us and shared our vision from day one,” Thibaud said. He said fresh capital will be used to help the company grow and hire more talent in engineering, product, marketing and operation.
It’s very interesting that Thibault and Simi built the company, raised over 1 million euros and had two children, and the process that started work more than four years ago ended.
“We’re actually moving next month,” Thibaud said. “We’ll move next month after a 14-month delay at completion. This is a problem we’re trying to solve for millions of people.”
This story was updated to reflect who will jointly lead the round.
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