FlowManual is an AI platform for the back office of construction contractors. It reads specs, contracts, quotes, and invoices and automatically marks up scope, prices, deadlines, and exclusions, then compares bids against signed contracts and invoices against locked buyout prices to flag every scope change and price drift by severity and dollar impact. Founded in 2026 by Harvard dropouts David Shijoon Bae and Michael Lin, the company is part of Y Combinator's Summer 2026 batch and aims to cut the repetitive manual work of pre-construction so contractors can bid more and deliver at a higher standard.
Evan Brown is the CEO and co-founder of Rebar, a New York vertical-AI company building an operating system for the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing trades. Rebar's platform reads blueprints and spec books, pulls out tens of thousands of data points per project, and turns estimating and quoting work that once took days into a task of minutes. Brown grew up in his uncle's HVAC supplier office and later spent years as an estimator and sales engineer before starting Rebar in October 2024 with Andrew Schwartz. In March 2026 the company closed a $14M Series A led by Prudence.
MeltPlan is a Berkeley-based AI-native planning engine for the construction industry. It moves critical decisions upstream into preconstruction - automating quantity takeoffs, checking building-code compliance, and leveling bids - so that architects, contractors and owners can stress-test plans before a shovel hits the ground. Founded in 2025 by Kanav Hasija (ex-Innovaccer) and Tanmaya Kala (ex-DPR), the company raised $14M led by Bessemer Venture Partners and is already deployed with DPR Construction and Innovo Group.