building-permits
(6)
Shovels
Shovels is an AI-powered building-permit intelligence platform that turns fragmented local-government data into a queryable source of truth on construction activity, covering more than 130 million permits across 1,800+ US jurisdictions.
GreenLite
GreenLite is a construction technology company that pairs AI with licensed experts to speed up building permits. Its platform ingests plan sets, flags code violations, and surfaces jurisdiction-specific guidance from the largest proprietary compliance comment library in the U.S., cutting permitting timelines from 90-120+ days down to roughly 21-45 days. Through AI-powered Private Plan Review, third-party experts backed by GreenLite software perform official code compliance reviews in place of overloaded city departments. Founded in 2022 by ex-Gopuff executives James Gallagher and Ben Allen, GreenLite serves national retailers, REITs, quick-service restaurants, banks, and home builders, and has raised about $86M total, including a $49.5M Series B led by Insight Partners in September 2025.
James Gallagher
James Gallagher is the CEO and co-founder of GreenLite, a New York based construction technology company that pairs AI with licensed architects, engineers, and former regulators to deliver code-compliant building permits in days rather than months. A former Marine infantry and intelligence officer who deployed to Afghanistan, Gallagher spent a decade scaling the physical footprints of venture-backed companies like Gopuff, Bandit, and Good Uncle before realizing that permitting was the real bottleneck holding builders back. He founded GreenLite in 2022 with fellow Gopuff alum Ben Allen, and has since raised $86M across three rounds, including a $49.5M Series B led by Insight Partners in September 2025.
PermitFlow
PermitFlow is a New York-based construction technology company building an AI platform that automates the permitting lifecycle - from jurisdiction research and application prep to submission, tracking, inspections, and license management. Founded in 2021 by Francis Thumpasery and Samuel Lam, the company says its software has powered more than $20 billion in construction value and cuts approval times roughly in half for builders like Lennar, Amazon, IKEA, and Toll Brothers. It raised a $54M Series B led by Accel in December 2025, bringing total funding to about $90.5M.
Francis Thumpasery
Francis Thumpasery is the co-founder and CEO of PermitFlow, a New York-based startup using AI to drag construction permitting out of the fax-machine era. After a Harvard economics degree, a stint at McKinsey, and years investing in workflow software, he watched relatives outside Washington, DC wrestle with permits and decided the $1.6 trillion construction industry deserved better software. Since 2021 PermitFlow has powered over $20B in construction value, raised $90.5M, and turned a famously paper-bound process into something measured in days instead of months.
Ryan Buckley
Ryan Buckley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shovels, a Lafayette, California-based startup that turns fragmented government building permit records into a searchable intelligence layer for the construction and climate tech industries. Armed with degrees from UC Berkeley, MIT Sloan, and Harvard Kennedy School, Buckley spent years building parallel B2B ventures before co-founding Shovels in 2022 with Luka Kacil. The company now processes 180+ million building permits, covers 30 million US addresses, and raised a $5M seed round in June 2025 led by Base10 Partners. A prolific blogger, part-time college professor, and author of 'The Parallel Entrepreneur,' Buckley is building what he calls the 'Pitchbook for the construction industry.'