All Thibault Launay and his wife Simi wanted almost five years ago was to build a dream home in Portugal, where they both live now.
But what they faced instead was a broken system. “Fourteen months of delays, budget overruns 20% and endless stress management over 10 subcontractors,” Thibault recalled. They bought the land in December 2020, received the construction permit in early 2022 and began constructing that year. “This had to end in February 2024,” he said. But it is in May 2025, and the house is not yet.
“We realized,” he continued, “if we are fighting with it, so are millions of others.”
Thus, Thibault, himself a serial founder and entrepreneur, and Simi, a consultant and also founder, started LitehausA company that offers to help landowners and property developers build houses in a more effective and sustainable way. It faces a pressing need in both the US and European markets: the ability to build affordable homes.
Litehaus, who began last year’s last year, calls himself “Uber of Construction”, with Thibault saying that the company simply wants to connect all of the fragmented parts of the building process today. It matches land owners and real estate developers with other professionals such as construction companies, architects, contractors and interior designers. The company allows users to monitor costs, coordinate the timetables with employees and monitor the progress of the building in real time.
“As a market strategy, we have decided to focus mainly on the module -based construction, allowing us to build 30% cheaper, 40% faster and 60% more viable,” Thibault said, adding that it meant 90% less waste and 50% less CO2.
Others in the articulated construction include Ginosko Modular and Flummerfelt and India -based Prefabs, according to Pitchbook.
Litehaus has at least one American construction company on its network, as it seems to promote its expansion to the country. At the moment, it focuses on “becoming Europe’s fastest growing technology,” Thibault said.
In addition, the European construction industry could use more innovation. Investors in America are throwing billions of dollars into growing construction technology and, as usual, there is a lot of room for the European technology industry to cover the difference.
Investors here and throughout the lake clearly agree. Last week, Litehaus announced a 1.46m-euro pre-centenary round, which co-co-co-co-convene-converted by the CornerStone VC and Explorer Fund of the United Kingdom, one of Portugal’s largest private chapters. The Claster Group, a family office of Luxembourg and investor Angel Pascal Levy, a Venture partner in the Long Journey Ventures here in the US, also participated in the round.
“The lack of housing across Europe has caused a crisis, driving life, as home ownership is becoming farther and farther away,” said Rodney Appiah, chief executive at Cornerstone VC. “When I first met Thibault and Simi, I was hit by their fascinating vision: to build a home as simple as buying a one, overthrowing the construction industry to bring more transparency, viability, quality and confidence in the process of building.”
Thibault called the trip to concentration of “intense” funds. He said that he and Simi had met their head investors for years through reciprocal friends. Thibault, who is from France, is the founder of an impressive gaming studio in Portugal, but has also invested in numerous companies, both as an Angelos investor and through his work in 50 partners and origin, based in France and New York, respectively. Before that, he worked in a French mining company and in Green Tech.
Simi, meanwhile, was born in Nigeria and raised in London. She ran a modern art gallery, a brand of well -being for color women and worked as a consultant and general for various businesses for law and Africa.
“I always wanted to build businesses that change people’s lives,” Simi told TechCrunch. “Providing accessible houses on a scale is not just an opportunity in the market – it’s one of the most important ways we can create deep, constant impacts.”
He is now responsible for marketing, communication and design in Litehaus. Her husband, Thibault, handles the concentration of capital, business development and technology.
“When it’s time to upload, we quickly moved with partners who already knew us and shared our vision from day one,” Thibault said. He said that fresh capital would be used to help escalate the company and hire more talents in engineering, product, marketing and businesses.
It is quite funny that Thibault and Simi built a company, set more than a million euros and had two children, before their home, a process that started working four years ago, finally ended.
“We are actually in reality next month,” Thibault said. “We are moving next month after a 14 -month delay during completion. This is the point of pain we are trying to solve for millions of people.”
This story was informed to reflect who wrote the round.
