Structured AI lands €435k as Oxford grads go after construction’s biggest bottleneck
Structured AI, a London-based startup founded by Oxford University graduates Raymond Zhao, Brandon Smith, and Isabel Greenslade, has raised approximately €435k in a pre-Seed round closed within just one week.
Backed by Zero Prime Ventures, Airtree Ventures, and the Oxford Seed Fund, the company is building vertical AI agents to automate repetitive design engineering workflows that plague productivity in the construction sector.
“The future increasingly demands smarter, more sustainable infrastructure and the engineers who design our cities and infrastructure are some of the most critical problem solvers we have. Yet, even with a severe global engineering talent shortage, firms are sinking over a third of their expert hours into manual, repetitive work.
“Our mission at Structured AI is to give engineers back their most valuable asset: time, freeing them up to design the infrastructure of tomorrow,” said Raymond Zhao, Co-founder & CEO.
Founded in 2025, the startup is targeting one of the most unglamorous but critical problems in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry: the administrative burden that senior engineers face.
The founding team brings deep technical and commercial experience, including former careers in AI research, quantitative finance, and investment banking. Their verticalised approach aligns with a growing trend in AI: moving away from generalist platforms and instead building bespoke solutions that reflect the logic and complexity of specific industries.
“AI and multimodality are unlocking massive opportunities across vertical-specific industries. We believe the next generation of software will be deeply verticalised, transforming domain-specific workflows to drive efficiency, intelligence, and better decision-making. When we met Raymond, Isabel and Brandon we were impressed by the energy and speed of execution they bring to the table. We’re proud to support Structured as they build the future of domain-native AI software,” said Yang Tran, Partner at Zero Prime Ventures.
According to Structured AI, engineers often spend up to 30% of their time on technical documentation, reporting, and other routine but essential tasks. This inefficiency significantly slows project delivery in an industry that makes up over 5% of the US GDP and is currently facing a global shortage of skilled engineering talent.
Structured AI’s initial product is already being piloted inside a top-150 US design engineering firm.
It focuses on automating the creation and management of technical paperwork, dramatically streamlining internal and external collaboration between engineers, architects, and general contractors. By embedding their AI into real workflows and working closely with engineering teams, the Structured AI approach is built to be both fast to deploy and safe to operate within regulated environments.
“The only true differentiation in startups is urgency – and I’ve not met many teams who have as much urgency as Raymond, Isabel and Brandon. Impressed with what they’ve already built and excited to see what else is coming,” noted James Cameron, Partner at Airtree Ventures.
Structured AI outlines that they work closely with clients during two-week sprints to identify pain points in their documentation workflows. Their method includes on-site collaboration, ROI analysis, and compliance coordination with InfoSec and governance teams, culminating in lightweight prototypes built inside real workflows.
The goal? To build AI-powered tools that engineers actually want to use.
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