NavigateAI, a new startup from Opendoor founder Eric Wu, uses artificial intelligence to help construction and field teams work more efficiently.
Serial startup founder Eric Wu’s next move after Opendoor is betting that artificial intelligence will help construction workers, property managers, and other field workers build and maintain physical spaces more efficiently.
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Wu, co-founder and former CEO of Opendoor, officially launched NavigateAI on Tuesday with $25 million in seed funding, the company said in a media statement. The San Francisco-based company is building what it calls an AI co-pilot for the “physical world” with the goal of assisting field workers with real-time coaching, project scoping, quality control, and access to technical information.
The seed round was led by Elad Gil with participation from Khosla Ventures, Fifth Wall, Lennar, Tishman Speyer, and Helix Electric. Angel investors include Zach Frankel of Ramp, Dallas Tanner and Marcus Ridgway of Invitation Homes, Winston Weinberg of Harvey, Gary Beasley of Roofstock, Jesse Zhang of Decagon, Apoorva Mehta of Instacart, Tony Xu and Stanley Tang of DoorDash, Logan Green of Lyft, and Brian Armstrong of Coinbase.
NavigateAI’s launch partners include Lennar, Roofstock, Tishman Speyer, and electrical college AIM. The company says its software can run in real time on cell phone cameras and, through a partnership with Meta, on Meta glasses, allowing workers to receive hands-free instruction while completing tasks in the field.
In a blog post about the launch of the new business, Wu explained that the product gives field workers a “second set of expert eyes” when building, installing and validating work.
“We’re building a field-grade co-pilot for the labor market that powers the way things are built, maintained, and delivered. Specifically, we’re building an AI-native system that acts as an expert coach for all field teammates that can improve speed, cost, and quality simultaneously,” Wu wrote in the post.
The company’s launch comes as the real estate and construction industries face labor shortages, high construction costs and pressure to provide more housing, data centers and infrastructure. NavigateAI says co-pilots can help field teams create scopes of work, cost estimates and material lists. Check building codes, specifications, and manufacturer’s manuals. Check work against code, specifications, and original project scope before final inspection.
In his launch article, Wu described the company as part of a shift in AI delivery from “text to video, from phones to wearables,” and eventually to new hardware such as robots.
“We have a generational opportunity to upskill millions of workers with AI at the very moment the country needs to build more and faster,” Wu said in a news release. “We are building an AI co-pilot to enable this workforce transition.”
Stuart Miller, CEO of listed homebuilder Lennar, said the partnership is aimed at combining new technology with homebuilder trading partners.
“NavigateAI brings a quality-first AI co-pilot to work with front-line employees to raise the bar for quality for every family that moves into a Lennar home,” Miller said in a statement.
Wu co-founded Opendoor in 2014 and helped popularize the iBuying model, which uses technology and capital markets to provide instant cash to home sellers. Opendoor went public in 2020 and became one of the hottest real estate technology companies during the pandemic-era housing boom.
Last summer, when it faced delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, Opendoor became the focus of a meme stock rally, with its stock price rising 500 percent within weeks.
Before founding Opendoor, Wu founded Movity, a geographic data startup, and later served as head of geography and social products at Trulia, according to his LinkedIn profile. NavigateAI says its founding team includes builders and researchers from Opendoor, Stripe, DeepMind, Stanford, and Google.
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