Why We Invested in MeltPlan
Construction is a $14 trillion global industry by market size that touches every part of how we live and work. And yet, it remains one of the least digitised sectors in the world. Productivity in construction has actually declined since the 1990s. That’s not for lack of skilled people or hard work - it’s because the tools and workflows that precede the actual building haven’t kept pace with what’s possible.
At noa, we invest in the technologies rebuilding the physical world - the infrastructure, energy systems, and built environments that form Humanity’s OS. Preconstruction is exactly where we look: the upstream bottlenecks where better software and AI can fundamentally change how the world gets built.
Today, noa is announcing our investment in MeltPlan, the AI-native preconstruction platform founded by Kanav Hasija and Tanmaya Kala. We’re backing MeltPlan because we believe it can become the system of record for everything that happens before ground is broken and, in doing so, fix where construction projects most often go wrong.
Construction doesn’t fail on the jobsite - it fails in planning
While the construction execution phase has its dominant platform in Procore, the preconstruction phase - where designs are reviewed, codes are checked, quantities are estimated, and bids are assembled - has no equivalent. Teams today juggle a patchwork of legacy desktop tools like Bluebeam and PlanSwift, siloed spreadsheets, and manual handoffs between architects, engineers, general contractors, and trade partners.
The result is fragmented data, costly rework, and decisions made before anyone has the full picture. By the time mistakes surface during construction, they’ve already become expensive change orders. The industry doesn’t lack talent - it lacks a planning layer that brings stakeholders together with shared intelligence before scope is frozen.
MeltPlan is building the missing layer
MeltPlan is taking on this gap with what it calls the “Planning Engine”: a unified platform that integrates code compliance, cost estimation, schedule optimisation, and value analysis into a single AI-powered workflow. Rather than plugging off- the-shelf AI onto legacy tools, MeltPlan has built construction-native models from scratch. These proprietary models achieve 93–98% accuracy on construction-specific tasks - specifically in building code review and plan reading - meaningfully outperforming general-purpose alternatives.
The initial wedges - automated code compliance, AI-powered quantity takeoff, and bid and cost management - address the most time-consuming and error - prone steps in preconstruction.
A founder who’s done this before
Kanav Hasija co-founded Innovaccer, a healthcare data platform that he scaled to a $3 billion valuation and fundamentally changed how health systems in the US manage care delivery. Kanav is a rare combination of vision, product instinct, and operational discipline; someone who builds with urgency but makes careful, sequenced bets.
Construction is a new domain for Kanav, but that’s by design. He’s partnered with Tanmaya Kala, a Stanford-educated civil engineer and former project executive at DPR Construction, who brings deep operational experience across large commercial, healthcare, and life science projects. The combination of a proven platform builder and a seasoned construction operator is both rare and powerful.
Kanav draws a clear parallel between healthcare and construction: both are massive, fragmented industries where incumbents resist change and where the right technology can unlock enormous value.
Why now
The timing for MeltPlan is driven by a convergence of factors. For decades, the complex data formats that dominate preconstruction - PDFs, architectural drawings, BIM models, and long-form regulatory text - resisted digitisation. Advances in AI, particularly in vision models and document understanding, have changed that. At the same time, the construction industry faces a growing labour shortfall even as demand for new buildings rises. Mid-market and SMB contractors, who make up the vast majority of the market, are especially underserved - they can’t afford enterprise solutions like Procore, yet they’re drowning in manual workflows. This is the gap MeltPlan is built to fill.
Looking ahead
MeltPlan’s ambition is to make construction “boring” - to move the intensity and rigour upstream into planning so that execution becomes predictable and efficient. We think that’s a vision worth backing, and we’re proud to be partnering with Kanav, Tanmaya, and the MeltPlan team alongside Bessemer Venture Partners. The built world is ready for its planning engine. We believe MeltPlan is building it.
