THE artificial intelligence (AI) It is no longer a topic of the future and occupies space in traditional areas of economics. Have you ever thought that a building materials supplier could use an AI-based solution to know where to sell their product? It is with this in mind that the startup Obra Vista offers solutions in AI, Geomarketing and Big Data to identify opportunities and connect potential partners in the construction chain.
Incubated at Metropole Parque, an innovation hub of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, construtech has been operational for almost a year and maintains a platform that monitors 3.1 million works in real time in the country. In the system, artificial intelligence is used for activities such as data processing, creating predictive models, and market research.
Anderson Araújo, founder and CEO of Obra Vista, is one of the minds behind the startup. He designed the project with his partner, Victor Colman, director of operations at construtech. The new company was born as a spin-off from Inovall, a holding company that has been operating in the market for nine years with solutions involving market intelligence and Big Data, of which it is also the founder.
“Inovall has business-oriented expertise, but it did not make sense to leave this competence to the construction sector. This is how the spin-off gave birth to a new company and a vision to serve this segment, where the division, employees and teams focus on achieving results for this sector,” explains the CEO.
The storyline follows a growing use of AI by innovative companies. According to the Founders Overview 2024 survey, carried out by Sebrae Startups in partnership with ACE Ventures, 78% of Brazilian startups are already using technologies based on algorithms and data to automate processes and provide insights. Among construtechs, the percentage is 5.5%.
On the industry side, the movement towards digitalization justifies the intensification of the race for technological companies. Data from the Falconi Civil Construction Thermometer 2025 edition, produced by Falconi in partnership with the Sienge ecosystem, shows that 37% of companies in this sector are already using AI-based solutions. In 2023, this percentage was 15%.
In order to bring Obra Vista to life, Anderson Araújo explains that he opened a R$1 million fundraising fund in February this year, aimed at 12 potential investors. Once the amount was reached, in March, Obra Vista was created. Operations began in April.
In addition to being incubated at Metropole Parque, the startup maintains its headquarters in São Paulo and has a portfolio of 25 clients, mainly concentrated in the South and Southeast regions. Among them, about 80% are input and service chain industries.
By accessing the Obra Vista platform, customers have access to panels containing information on the performance of the commercial construction inputs sector, the number of active jobs, the size and price of each monitored service, the name of construction companies, in addition to georeferencing each job on an interactive map. The system was also able to combine databases linked to 26 states in the country, in addition to the Federal District.
Although the civil construction sector is reluctant to adopt new technologies, Anderson Araújo observes that the need to maintain return on investment This is a determining factor in recruiting new solutions. Obra Vista, in particular, can address needs related to hiring labor, identifying jobs and services for sale, and planning for better spaces to launch new projects.
“This mitigates the risks of making a high investment without return. All this is based on market intelligence and artificial intelligence, which makes it possible to cross-reference many indicators. We are “cutting the weeds”, because until recently, many entrepreneurs were unaware that such a solution existed,” emphasizes the CEO.
In practice, Obra Vista provides insight, for example, into the best types of work for each region, i.e. whether it is worth investing more in homesteads or commercial spaces, in addition to mapping the entire surroundings of each region studied. “From there we were able to understand and build the breakout for civil construction chain stock, or for inputs and services.”
Thinking about 2026, Anderson Araújo specifies that it is expected to be able to increase the number of contracts and continue to promote a kind of market education on the solutions offered by the startup. “As we are a new company, we are working on raising awareness.”
Educating the market on AI is a challenge for construtechs
Although Obra Vista operates with a newer platform on the market, the startup is not the first to seek innovation in the construction chain. In 2022, for example, the Colombian startup Tul arrived in Brazil with the proposal to connect industries and small and medium retailers in the segment. This arrival comes just months after the company secured an investment of $181 million, led by 8VC and supported by Avenir Growth Capital.
One of the startup’s goals was to become the Amazon of hardware stores, but the idea doesn’t seem to have taken off as expected. The report reveals that TUL has decided to close its operations in Brazil and concentrate its work only in Colombia. In a statement, the company said it was not a “final goodbye, but rather a see you soon.” No details were provided on the motivations for the decision.
On the other hand, the general challenge scenarios observed in civil construction are varied. Professor of the School of Applied Mathematics of Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rafael de Pinho, who conducts research in the field of human-computer interaction, points out that the Brazilian construction market is moderately favorable for the growth in the use of AI. Indeed, sectors such as construction face significant operational complexity, such as multiple contracts and regulatory risks, creating a favorable environment for AI adoption.
He believes, however, that in the case of construction startups, the main obstacles are not only developing solutions with AI, but integrating them into a viable business model for a sector with low digital maturity. Added to this, the segment requires some “evangelization” and education to the market, in order to show customers where AI can add value.
“Additionally, it is difficult to find customers with unstructured data and processes, making the implementation and support of AI products and services more difficult and expensive. This is reflected in more difficulties in concluding recurring contracts and in the need to prove the return on investment (ROI) very quickly in an environment where the client itself does not measure its processes well,” adds Rafael de Pinho.
Sebrae Nacional’s head of innovation, Paulo Renato Macedo Cabral, brings a similar perspective on the complexities of the sector. According to him, although the use of AI increases every year in startups linked to the Sebrae system, the scenario is more favorable for sectors like commerce and retail. Indeed, these segments have fewer barriers to entry than industrial segments, where the rules are stricter.
Professor Insper Afonso Carlos Braga, Master of Business Administration, recognizes that the use of AI in construction is still low compared to other sectors of the economy, but this does not mean that it is resistant to the emergence of new solutions. One example of this is the use of the concept of a “digital twin”, which allows for the digital representation of a physical asset before work begins and has been used in the sector for years.
The expert also considers that despite the possible challenges faced by startups and companies with AI solutions in the construction chain, it is evident that a movement is occurring in this sector. The central question for him is whether companies will choose to wait and observe the adoption of artificial intelligence, or whether they will proactively embrace innovation as “early adopters,” seeking to learn and invest in what shows promise.
In a context of companies already established in the sector, but with fundamental management and digitalization difficulties, Rafael de Pinho clarifies that startups end up acting as extensions of the digital capacity of companies and undertake more technological and data-intensive approaches. “This arrangement constitutes the typical ecosystem in which AI startups operate as technology partners of more consolidated and established companies, which have commercial knowledge and scale,” he concludes.
The director of Metrópole Parque, Rodrigo Romão, shares that the arrival of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, has broken down many barriers to understanding the implications of using these tools in terms of operational efficiency. It is enough to compare, for example, the time taken to join these platforms with that of the Internet itself, which took decades to establish itself in the routine of the population.
“The adoption curve is therefore very accelerated. If we have this environment favorable to technological adoption, therefore, companies, even traditional ones, are starting to consider this scenario,” he emphasizes.
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