Seedcamp leads $6.3m pre-seed for Oslo's AI-native engineering firm Solvera
The London-based VC backs a Norwegian startup rebuilding construction engineering around AI agents, as the company prepares to open a UK office.
Oslo-based Solvera has raised $6.3 million in a pre-seed round led by London investor Seedcamp, as the startup builds what it calls an AI-native engineering firm for the construction sector.
The round also drew participation from Construct Venture, Inception Fund, Momentum, Obos Ventures, PSV Tech, Sondo and The Nordic Web Ventures, alongside angel investors including Spacemaker founders Anders Kvåle and Håvard Haukeland.
What Solvera does
Founded by chief executive Arif Mirza, chief technology officer Pål Rasmussen and chief commercial officer Thorvald Thorsnes, Solvera is not selling software licences or billing by the consulting hour. Instead, it operates as a full engineering firm, taking projects from initial requirements through to coordinated, construction-ready designs.
The company has built a purpose-built operating system that uses AI agents to automate a growing share of engineering tasks, while human engineers retain responsibility for judgement and key decisions. The system is designed to capture engineering knowledge from each project and reuse it on future work, improving over time.
Solvera’s initial focus is mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineering, an area the company describes as heavily manual and fragmented, with engineers typically juggling multiple tools and repeating tasks across projects.
Mirza said the industry has had two decades of improved building engineering software, and now AI, yet productivity and the fundamental way engineering is delivered have barely changed. He argued that technology alone is not enough, and that capturing its full potential means rethinking how an engineering firm operates and makes money, something he said is difficult inside organisations built around thousands of staff, active projects and billable hours. That, he said, is why Solvera chose to build the engineering firm itself around AI rather than build another tool for engineers.
UK expansion on the cards
Solvera is already delivering work on building projects in Norway, spanning early-stage engineering through to detailed design, including commercial projects with Norwegian contractor Betonmast.
The new funding will go towards expanding Solvera’s engineering and technology team in Oslo, developing its operating system further, and establishing a London office. The company has also said it plans to enter additional markets as its business model develops.
The involvement of Seedcamp as lead investor, and the choice of London for Solvera’s next office, gives the deal a direct UK dimension. For the UK startup ecosystem, it is a sign that British early-stage capital continues to back ambitious bets on AI reshaping traditional, labour-intensive industries beyond the UK’s own borders, while positioning London as a bridgehead for the company’s future growth.
What to watch next
Attention will now turn to how quickly Solvera can open and staff its London office, which markets it targets after Norway, and whether its AI-driven operating model can scale engineering output without compromising the human oversight the founders say remains central to the business.