Autodesk Acquires Spacemaker’s Urban Development Al Software

Autodesk has acquired Norway’s Spacemaker, a startup that has developed AI-supported software for urban development. The price of the acquisition is $240 million in a mostly all-cash deal. Spacemaker’s VC backers include Euro

BY Realty Plus
Published - Wednesday, 18 Nov, 2020

Autodesk Acquires Spacemaker’s Urban Development Al Software

Autodesk has acquired Norway’s Spacemaker, a startup that has developed AI-supported software for urban development. The price of the acquisition is $240 million in a mostly all-cash deal. Spacemaker’s VC backers include European firms Atomico and Northzone, which co-led the company’s $25 million Series A round in 2019. Other investors on the cap table include Nordic real estate innovator NREP, Nordic property developer OBOS, U.K. real estate technology fund Round Hill Ventures and Norway’s Construct Venture. Founded by Håvard Haukeland, Carl Christensen and Anders Kvale, and based in Oslo, Norway — but with a number of other outposts around the globe — the 115-person Spacemaker team develops and sells cloud-based software that utilises AI to help architects, urban designers and real estate developers make more informed design decisions. By having Spacemaker look over a designer’s shoulder, the software aims to augment the work of humans and not only speed up the urban development design and planning process but also improve outcomes, including around sustainability and quality of life for the people who will ultimately live in the resulting spaces. To do this, the platform enables users to quickly “generate, optimize, and iterate on” design alternatives, taking into account design criteria and data like terrain, maps, wind, lighting, traffic and zoning, etc. Spacemaker then returns design alternatives optimized for the full potential of the site.