Bobyard

In 2023, Michael Ding, a Stanford-trained engineer, noticed a critical inefficiency in the construction industry: contractors were still spending days manually measuring and counting materials from architectural drawings. This tedious process was error-prone, costly, and bottlenecked entire projects before they even started. Determined to solve this problem, he founded Bobyard as the AI infrastructure for construction trades.

Bobyard leverages advanced computer vision (CV) and natural language processing (NLP) models to automatically read and analyze construction drawings like an expert estimator would, but at 10x the speed with significantly fewer mistakes. The platform transforms what historically took contractors hours or even days of tedious manual takeoff work into minutes of accurate, reliable output. By automating the most time-consuming parts of pre-construction estimating, Bobyard helps contractors get bids out the door faster, win more jobs, and focus on what matters most.

Backed by $35M in Series A funding led by 8VC with participation from Pear VC, Primary Venture Partners, Tishman Speyer, RXR, and Caffeinated Capital, Bobyard is rapidly expanding beyond its initial landscaping focus to serve finishes, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical trades. The company is building next-generation software to modernize how the world gets built, one trade at a time.