SketchDeck.ai, a software development company born in 2021 to save time for steel estimators, has closed a funding round led by Montreal's Boreal Ventures, with participation from BDC Capital and BKR Capital. The company's LIFT tool uses AI to analyze construction drawings and identify, measure, and count materials needed for a project. "When we started, the goal was to give steel estimators back the hours they were losing to manual takeoff," founder and CEO Daniel Kamau posted. "Hundreds of estimators and millions of tons of steel later, LIFT is doing that every day. This round is about doing more of it, and doing it in more places."
The investment will make it possible to accelerate the startup's product roadmap and expand into other parts of the value chain, Kamau said in the company's announcement. "Takeoff and estimating is where we started. It's not where we stop," he wrote. "There are other stages of a steel project where the same combination of AI and workflow design can take friction out of the day, and we want to build there too." The company recently launched a feature called LIFT-Delta, which helps manage revisions. It demonstrated LIFT-Delta at NASCC: The Steel Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, from April 22 to 24.
Boreal's JD Saint-Martin will join the board of SketchDeck.ai. Kamau said Saint-Martin helped scale Montreal-based startup Lightspeed Commerce past $1 billion. "He's also a founder, which means he understands the work from the inside," Kamau said. "We're lucky to have him in the room as we take on the next stage." Saint-Martin said he was "stoked to join the board," and was "completely blown away by the impressive traction and progress the team made in a short period of time," he posted. SketchDeck.ai was one of the companies that Edmonton Unlimited showcased at Launch Party in October 2025. It also won Startup TNT's investment summit in June 2024.