Mach9 announced a $34 million Series A funding round on Wednesday after changing direction from inspection hardware to AI-powered computer-aided design (CAD) software. First Round Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners jointly led the financing. Prudence, a New York-based early-stage investor focused on AI software for construction and real estate, also participated. Quiet Capital, an existing investor, contributed to the round. Nearly 100 customers have joined the software’s private beta. Those customers have used the software for more than 2,500 projects so far.
Alex Baikovitz co-founded Mach9 Robotics in 2021 to develop faster, cheaper and better hardware for civil engineers conducting visual inspections. The company sought to reduce bureaucracy and update outdated construction processes in the United States. Mach9 Robotics built the hardware within a few years, but Baikovitz concluded that hardware was not the main obstacle. Baikovitz said civil engineering organizations struggled to convert laser-scanner and image-capture data into detailed site surveys usable for design. Baikovitz removed Robotics from the company’s name and redirected development toward AI-powered CAD software.
Baikovitz said CAD work is among the slowest and most labor-intensive stages of the construction and infrastructure pipeline. Baikovitz said projects take months to deliver, with manual work requiring about a week per mile in incumbent software from companies such as Autodesk and Bentley Systems. Mach9 says automation makes the process 10 times faster while substantially reducing costs. Baikovitz said the software lets surveying and civil engineering customers increase capacity, accept larger and more varied projects, and use reality-capture data more widely in infrastructure decisions.
Baikovitz said Mach9 built and trained proprietary AI models to achieve the centimeter-level accuracy required for construction and infrastructure work. Baikovitz said many off-the-shelf models cannot deliver that accuracy. Baikovitz said development since 2024 has focused heavily on converting imagery and multimodal image and laser-scan datasets into survey-grade geometry. That work includes tracing curbs and pavement markings to customers’ specifications and industry accuracy requirements.
Mach9’s system converts survey data into an initial plan that engineers can refine. Baikovitz said engineers receive tools to draw, delete elements, change vertices and evaluate the AI-generated model’s quality. Baikovitz said those tools let engineers take professional responsibility for deliverables in an industry with substantial liability that requires licensed professionals. Baikovitz said the new funding will be divided among product development, hiring industry specialists and expanding the organization to meet market demand.
Mach9 competes among startups seeking to modernize construction and infrastructure work from planning through building. CivilGrid raised $26 million in August to expand a service that CivilGrid describes as a “Google Maps for the underground.” Blueprints AI produces architectural blueprints that meet building codes and permit requirements within minutes. Blueprints AI ranked among the top 200 companies in the Startup Battlefield competition at last week’s TechCrunch Disrupt.
Baikovitz said the initial hardware effort gave Mach9 a product to present to prospective customers. Baikovitz said those customers largely explained that better data-capture devices were not what the customers needed. Baikovitz recalled a vice president rejecting cheaper hardware while identifying better software as a way to improve delivery of large statewide transportation-mapping projects. Baikovitz said such projects help improve safety and effectiveness in states where Mach9 has worked, including Texas.
