MeltPlan raises $10M from Bessemer to bring AI into construction’s earliest decisions
Founded by Innovaccer’s Kanav Hasija, the startup is building a preconstruction “planning engine” aimed at reducing cost overruns and schedule delays in the $14 trillion global construction industry.
MeltPlan, a year-old startup founded by Innovaccer co-founder Kanav Hasija, has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, as it seeks to build an artificial intelligence (AI) system aimed at one of construction’s costliest blind spots: preconstruction planning.
The round, which also included participation from noa, brings the company’s total funding to $14 million. MeltPlan said the capital will be used to expand what it calls a “planning engine” for the roughly $14 trillion global construction industry, with a focus on product development across compliance, cost estimation, scheduling and value analysis tools.
Construction has long struggled with cost overruns and schedule delays, often attributed to fragmented decision-making before a project formally breaks ground. MeltPlan’s bet is that many of those failures originate upstream, when teams commit to budgets, timelines and scope with incomplete information.
“Construction doesn’t fail because teams execute poorly,” Hasija said in an interview. “It fails because preconstruction teams are fragmented and commit too early.”
Hasija previously co-founded Innovaccer, a health-technology company that reached a multibillion-dollar valuation. With MeltPlan, he is shifting his focus to construction productivity, an industry that has historically lagged manufacturing and services in efficiency gains.
He is joined by co-founder and chief operating officer Tanmaya Kala, a Stanford-trained civil engineer who previously served as a project executive at DPR Construction, overseeing large commercial and healthcare builds.
While design software has become increasingly sophisticated and construction management platforms now track execution in real time, MeltPlan is targeting what it describes as a missing software layer—tools that model trade-offs before contracts are signed and procurement begins.
The startup’s system is designed to interpret building codes, materials, sequencing and procurement constraints, and to simulate different scenarios before plans are locked in. The company said its software has scored 95% or higher on building inspector exams, an internal benchmark meant to demonstrate domain fluency.
Bessemer partner Pankaj Mitra said in a statement that the firm views preconstruction as a structural bottleneck. “Built environment workflows are full of irreversible decisions made under uncertainty,” he said. “MeltPlan is approaching preconstruction as a system, not a phase.”
The company plans to roll out four integrated modules: a code system that maps compliance pathways; a cost system focused on risk-oriented takeoffs and bid scoping; a schedule system for scenario-based sequencing; and a value system that analyzes trade-offs for developers and owners.
Rather than digitizing existing spreadsheets and workflows, MeltPlan aims to help project teams simulate outcomes before committing to them—an approach that mirrors how AI tools are reshaping planning in sectors from logistics to chip design.