Berlin's Kuro Just Raised $11M to Fix Construction's Biggest Time Sink

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-02

Berlin-based construction tech startup Kuro Technology just closed a €10 million funding round — roughly $11 million — and it's aiming at one of the most stubborn problems in construction: general contractors drowning in paperwork. If you've ever worked on a job site or sat in a contractor's office, you know the drill. Bids get built from piles of drawings, specs, and emails. Half the job is just figuring out what's actually being asked for. Kuro wants to change that with AI. ### The Round and Who's Behind It The round was led by UVC Partners, a Munich- and Berlin-based VC firm managing over €800 million — about $870 million — in assets. They've backed names like Isar Aerospace, Proxima Fusion, and Aleph Alpha. Foundamental, Realyze Ventures, and helloworld also joined in. "We're delighted to be working with Lea and Jonas," said Dr. Ingo Potthof, Managing Partner at UVC Partners. "We have known each other for many years, since well before Kuro was founded. They bring years of startup experience and deep industry knowledge, which matters a great deal in construction." He added that it's already paying off — Kuro is delivering measurable value in estimating and is expanding into procurement, accounting, and compliance. ### What Kuro Actually Does Kuro was founded in November 2024 by Lea Scherer and Jonas Minkler, both veterans of construction-tech firms alcemy and Capmo. The company now has 16 employees. Here's the core idea: general contractors sit at the center of every project. Their sales, estimating, procurement, and site teams spend roughly half their time digging through project docs and trying to make sense of the data. Kuro's platform processes those documents and links them into a single data model. On top of that, it builds a customer-specific rulebook covering building components, review criteria, and work packages. The platform flags contradictions between drawings and specs before they turn into expensive mistakes. It also assesses risk, improves 3D model components, processes public tenders, and evaluates subcontractor bids. And when an estimator makes a correction? It's saved into the rulebook. The same fix doesn't need to happen again on the next project. > "We started in estimation because that's where a project is born and decided," said Minkler, co-founder and CPO. "But the problems carry through into everything that follows: too much contradictory data and knowledge that isn't passed on from project to project." ### The Results So Far According to UVC Partners, Kuro's customers are saving around 90 hours per bid. That's more than two full work weeks. And 70% of users say the tool surfaced information they would have otherwise missed. Its client list includes Goldbeck, Köster, Implenia, Geiger, Riedel, and Hochtief Infrastructure — six of the largest general contractors in the German-speaking region. ### What's Next Kuro plans to use the fresh capital to build out its AI platform so it learns and improves with every project. "We see the construction industry as the foundation for progress in Europe," said Scherer, co-founder and CEO. "With Kuro, our job is to give it the technical foundation it needs to live up to this continent's ambition." The bigger picture? Contractors that turn their knowledge into a product will depend less on individual people as they scale. That's a shift worth watching — not just in Europe, but anywhere construction firms are fighting the same battle against information overload.