Denver-based Kestrel Labs has raised $2.2 million as it works to solve a problem many architects know too well: the slow, complicated and often expensive process of checking building plans against local codes.
The company, founded in late 2024 by Marian Pulford, has built artificial intelligence software that plugs into the 3D design tools architects and engineers already use. Instead of waiting until late in the process to discover code issues, users can check plans while they are still drawing them.
Pulford said the software can review an entire building in about 30 seconds and flag errors inside the design environment. Architects can then ask the system why something is wrong, which code section applies and how to fix the issue.
The idea grew from Pulford’s own frustration with permitting while she was development director for the RiNo Art District. During work on the RiNo Art Park, she saw how difficult the city and state permitting process could be. Her husband, Austin Pulford, a licensed architect, told her that delays and friction were simply part of the job.
That answer did not sit well with her.
Kestrel is aimed at the part of building-code review that Pulford describes as clearer and more rule-based. She said the software can handle about 80 percent of municipal codes that are more black-and-white, while the remaining 20 percent still needs human judgment because it is more open to interpretation.
For architecture firms, the pitch is time. Pulford said architects can spend up to 20 percent of their week on code compliance work. If Kestrel saves several hours per person each week, the savings can become much larger across a full project team over months or years.
The funding round was led by Chicago’s New Stack Ventures, with Denver Ventures and FirstMile Ventures also participating. Pulford said the money will help Kestrel add staff to its nine-person team, which works from office space in downtown Denver at 18th and California.
Kestrel has already been used by several dozen customers on hundreds of projects, according to Pulford. Most customers are in Colorado, though architects in Florida, California, New York and Illinois are also using the software. The company is also in early talks with municipalities about adding Kestrel to their own review processes.
The company sells annual contracts that allow unlimited use of the software. Pricing depends on the size of the firm and the type of work it handles. Pulford said a small residential firm in Frederick, Colorado, faces a very different compliance workload than a multinational architecture company designing data centers or concert halls.
Kestrel’s ambitions go beyond code checking, but Pulford is keeping the company focused for now. She sees the business eventually becoming a broader data company for the construction process. First, she said, it has to prove it can do one job very well.
That job is simple to describe and hard to execute: help architects catch problems earlier, reduce avoidable delays and make permitting less painful.
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