Volve secures $3M to scale AI-powered construction tendering across Europe
Norwegian construction technology company Volve has raised $3 million (NOK 30 million) in a seed funding round to further develop its intelligence platform for construction tendering and preconstruction. The funding will also support the company’s expansion across Europe. The round was led by Skyfall Ventures, with participation from J12, Norrsken Evolve, OBOS Ventures, Antler, and StartupLab. Angel investors also joined the round, including Daniel Kjørberg Siraj, former CEO of Nordic housing and urban development company OBOS.
Founded in 2024 by Herman Smith, Abyl Ikshanov, and Alf Jørgen Dovland, and based in Oslo, Volve develops an intelligence platform for contractors and public-sector organisations involved in tendering and preconstruction. The platform helps teams make important decisions before construction begins, such as whether to bid for a project, how to price the bid, and how to identify contractual and operational risks.
Construction tender teams often work under tight deadlines while dealing with large amounts of contracts, drawings, requirements, and technical specifications. Volve’s platform analyses these documents and connects project requirements, scope, and potential risks, giving teams a clearer and more structured view of the information needed to prepare bids.
The platform also helps contractors align their bids with client evaluation criteria and review subcontractor offers. According to Volve, around 80% of a project’s costs are determined before a contract is signed, making the tendering and preconstruction stages important for managing project margins and risks.
Despite their importance, tendering and preconstruction remain relatively under-digitised areas of the construction industry. Construction accounts for more than €1.6 trillion in annual investment across Europe, while construction contracts represent nearly one in five public tenders, based on data cited from the European Construction Industry Federation.
Construction is a project business: you have to win projects to stay in business, but winning on the wrong terms is worse than losing,
said Herman Smith, co-founder and CEO of Volve. He added that project margins are shaped by commercial decisions made before construction begins, often based on thousands of pages of interconnected documentation reviewed under tight deadlines.
Volve is already being used by main contractors and public-sector clients across the Nordic region and is now expanding its presence in the UK and other parts of Europe.
As part of the funding round, Volve is also launching a new graph-based system designed to connect and retain knowledge across different construction projects. While every project is different, many of the commercial decisions involved are similar. The new system allows insights and knowledge from one tender to be carried forward and used in future bids, helping teams avoid starting from scratch for every project.
The new funding will help Volve expand its product for main contractors and public clients while accelerating its growth across Europe. The company aims to become an intelligence layer that supports commercial decision-making throughout the tendering and preconstruction process.