AI startup Contineu raises $1.2 million in round led by SenseAI Ventures

Deeptech startup Contineu, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automate data entry at construction sites, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding led by SenseAI Ventures, with participation from Piper Serica Angel Fund.

Founded in 2023 by Harshil Naik and Kanao Ramesh, Contineu uses its AI platform to automate data entry on job sites through helmet-mounted cameras and 3D computer vision models. Its system automatically captures on-site visuals and converts them into data.

The Bengaluru-based startup will use the funds to expand its engineering and product teams, strengthen its AI infrastructure, and scale its enterprise deployments.


"There are set data sources on a construction site today, which do not fulfil the requirement for business intelligence or analytics which an industry requires. The data which exists in construction is very siloed and fragmented. We want to augment these textual data with visual data sources, which are more reliable," chief executive Naik told ET.

The startup is currently solving for quality checks via visual data through the cameras. Site engineers spend three to five hours collecting data per day and contextualising it. Naik said Contineu wants to bring that time to zero. Contineu aims to build an AI-backed vertical data infrastructure stack for the construction industry, he added.

After quality, the startup wants to expand operations to monitor progress, material quantity, safety and productivity.

Contineu, which uses scores of visual data, doesn't store any of it, and is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant. "We take the visual data and convert it into a 3D model. From this, we run our models to find defects etc. and we use it to build our knowledge graph. Our visuals do not usually comprise of human faces and video data is taken to create a model when a site is complete," Ramesh said.

Rahul Agarwalla, managing partner at SenseAI Ventures said construction is one of the largest yet least digitised industries, and hence, ripe for AI transformation.