Israeli startup QbiqAI Ltd. said today it has closed on a $16 million early-stage funding round to fuel its bid to transform architectural planning with artificial intelligence smarts.

The Series A round was led by the New York-based venture capital firm Insight Partners, and saw participation from the likes of JLL Spark, 10D, Random Forest, M-Fund and Ocean Azul.

Qbiq’s AI software aims to do two things. On the one hand, it enables basically anyone to become an architect, providing them with the tools they need to plan, visualize and optimize any interior space. At the same time, it caters to professional architects who know what they’re doing, offering a complete design package that includes everything from optimized floor plans to 3D visualizations, computer-aided design, modeling tools and material quantity estimates.

By combining all of these capabilities into a single platform and using generative AI to make it all accessible, Qbiq believes it can dramatically simplify the complexities of architectural design. In other words, it’s making life easier for qualified architects, while simultaneously enabling brokers, landlords and contractors to participate in the process, too.

The startup says traditional architectural planning remains extremely inefficient, with architects forced to use an array of different tools. For instance, the process of designing an interior space’s layout is normally done using tools such as AutoCAD, but these are incredibly complex to use and also very time-consuming, with users forced to design rooms line by line.

Another problem with AutoCAD is that once the design is complete, it can be difficult to interpret the finished plans, especially if the person trying to do so lacks a background in architecture. Then there’s the need to use separate tools to create visualizations such as rendered tours and images, which can take many weeks to create and require a different skillset.

Qbiq does all of this and more, and it also makes it easy, using AI assistance to walk even novices through the process, while suggesting ideas and automating much of the work involved. Users can simply tell it their vision, create a rough design, and Qbiq will take those inputs and transform it into a proper 3D visualization in a matter of minutes.

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that architectural design is an ideal use case for generative AI, since much of the work involves documents, which is the forte of many AI models.

“Generative AI can clearly help with generating architectural plans and designs and Qbiq is leading the way forward with a working platform that has already proven its worth,” he said. “The Series A funding validates its software, and soon we will see if it’s able to democratize and simplify architectural creation and visualization processes.”

The startup says customers, including the real estate management firm Brookfield Properties LLC and Swedish multinational Skanska AB, have already used its tools to create more than 400 million square feet of architectural layouts and visualizations. It says it has managed to accelerate this process in every case, helping reduce deal cycles and ensure projects are finished on schedule. That’s one reason why it has managed to grow its customer base by more than tenfold in the last year

Qbiq co-founder and Chief Executive Leeor Solnik said that when the company launched in 2023, he had hoped to reach 100 million square feet within the first year. “Many thought this was unrealistic, but by 2024 we had already quadrupled that goal and are now speeding toward the 1 billion-square-foot mark,” he said.

Insight Partners Managing Director Liad Agmon said his experience as a CEO means he understands the problems within the architectural design industry and the need to optimize office spaces to meet the particular requirements of each organization.

“Planning a vacant office space was always a tedious and lengthy process that would take weeks, involving lots of back-and-forth between our team, our landlords and our architects,” he recalled. “I was impressed by how elegantly Qbiq solves these problems, saving valuable time and money for all parties involved.”

Qbiq said the funding will help it to achieve its goal of standardizing automated architectural design in the commercial real estate industry, in order to accelerate the planning process and make it more accessible for nondesigners.

Images: Qbiq