From Stealth to Site: Meet Buildroid
Buildroid AI, a newly founded UAE-based startup, has officially emerged from stealth mode with a $2 million pre-seed round led by global investor Tim Draper. The company—launched in 2025 by Slava Solonitsyn and Anton Glance—aims to bring AI-powered robotics directly into construction workflows, one of the Middle East’s most labour-intensive industries.
Why the Construction Sector Needs Buildroid
The UAE construction market, valued at over $42 billion, continues to face chronic labour shortages and productivity challenges. While construction robotics is not new, past attempts often automated isolated tasks, creating tools that still relied heavily on manual support.
Slava Solonitsyn explains this gap:
“With the rapid development of AI, it has become possible to bring general-purpose and industrial robots to construction as well.”
The industry doesn’t just need robots that perform tasks—it needs an ecosystem capable of coordinating robots, simulations, workflows, and human workers in a unified process.
What Buildroid Has Built So Far
Buildroid’s approach is built around a robotics-automation platform that integrates:
- Building Information Models (BIM) paired with AI-driven digital twin simulations (powered by Nvidia Omniverse).
- A first block-laying robot, developed through a BIM-to-BUILD simulation process and currently being piloted at multiple UAE construction sites.
- A planned integration of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) to transport concrete blocks from pallets to the block-laying robot—eliminating repetitive manual tasks.
The startup reports that its system can deliver up to 10× faster productivity and up to 4× cost savings compared to traditional manual labour. Buildroid is starting with non-load-bearing walls before expanding into wider interior and on-site automation workflows.
Why the Funding Matters
With this pre-seed investment, Buildroid plans to:
- Expand pilot programmes with major contractors.
- Refine its simulation tools and autonomous robotic crews.
- Begin commercial deployments, with large-scale rollout expected starting Q2 next year.
Tim Draper’s endorsement underscores the startup’s credibility:
“Unlike single-robot solutions, Buildroid’s platform combines the best robotic technologies and empowers builders with scalable, flexible, vendor-agnostic automation that maintains the critical role of skilled human operators.”
This positions Buildroid as one of the region’s most promising players in the rapidly evolving construction-tech (con-tech) ecosystem.
What’s Next: Scaling a Multi-Robot Future
Buildroid is not positioning itself as a robotics manufacturer alone. It is building what it describes as a “Procore for Robotics in Construction”—a platform for contractors, robotic vendors, and automation operators.
By allowing third-party robotic systems to plug into its platform, Buildroid aims to accelerate adoption across a regional market expected to surpass $400 billion by 2030.
The startup has already partnered with major UAE contractors. For example, ALEC Engineering & Contracting is piloting Buildroid’s system and testing the BIM-simulation tools to de-risk on-site deployment and validate performance.
Key Lessons for Startup Founders
1. Solve a High-Value Bottleneck First
Buildroid started with partition walls—an area of high volume, predictable workflows, and clear labour challenges.
2. Think Platform, Not Just Product
By focusing on multi-robot orchestration, they avoid the common trap of building isolated hardware that doesn’t scale.
3. Build with Regional Realities in Mind
The UAE construction boom, combined with labour constraints, gives automation startups a uniquely strong early market.
4. Secure Strong Validation Partners
The combination of Draper’s backing and pilots with major contractors gives Buildroid a trustworthy foundation for scaling.
Editor’s Note — The Startups MENA Team
At Startups MENA, we focus on the narratives that define how the Middle East builds its next-generation workforce and innovation economy. The story of Buildroid is more than just raised capital—it shows how automation, AI and robotics are converging to reshape industries that were long considered low-tech.
In a region accelerating toward major infrastructure growth, ventures like Buildroid mark the shift from “we’re building a building” to “we’re building how buildings are built.” Automation doesn’t replace the human builders—it supports them, transforms workflows, and scales productivity.
As the UAE and the broader region continue progressing toward Vision-driven national goals, technology is no longer an afterthought in construction—it is the construction.
— The Startups MENA Editorial Team
