When Eric Wu was the CEO of Opendoor, a startup that popularized instant cash offers to homeowners, Opendoor was purchasing roughly 5,000 homes a month. Managing that massive volume required an expansive network of over 10,000 subcontractors and tradespeople, and despite spending about $750 million annually on home renovations, there was constant pain over quality control.

"I didn't know if a solution would be possible, but it just felt like there was so much inefficiency," Wu recalls of his time managing these sprawling real estate operations.

His new company, NavigateAI, is his attempt to attack that mess from the job site up. The startup has raised $25 million in seed funding at a $225 million valuation to build what Wu describes as an expert AI coach for construction workers. Investor Elad Gil led the round, with participation from venture capital fund Khosla Ventures and prominent real estate developers Lennar and Tishman Speyer.

NavigateAI targets the $2.2 trillion spent annually on U.S. construction projects, an industry currently crippled by a severe, compounding labor crisis.

"We have a........

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