Mistakes in capturing building data cost big money. NavLive brings together AI, LiDAR, and high-resolution imagery for accurate, speedier surveying.
See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most exceptional founders in the complete 2026 Startups 100 index.
Founders: Chris Davison and Dr David Wisth
Year founded: 2022
Website: navlive.ai
The building industry has long suffered from a time-consuming – and therefore costly – bottleneck. Surveyors have to spend days on sites making measurements to create an accurate digital representation of a building. Even then, there are often inaccuracies that impact the project after construction has started.
NavLive set out to solve this issue. Its founders, Chris Davison and Dr David Wisth, explain that they realised that using AI, LiDAR and high-resolution imagery, it was possible to capture an entire building simply by walking through it.
The research started at the Oxford Robotics Institute at the University of Oxford and focussed on how to combine these technologies in one device. They cracked it with a robust, lightweight device that can be both handheld or mounted on a robot.
As The Oxford Trust reported, “an exercise that may take a day or more to complete with standard mapping equipment can be completed within 15 to 30 minutes”. The data is also processed “on device” so firms don’t need to rely on the Cloud.
NavLive was spun out in 2022 and the time and cost savings immediately attracted a strong base of early customers. This is in no small part because the building industry is facing spiralling materials costs and the impending changes to zero-hours contracts are sure to have an impact on bottom lines.
The venture lists architectural firms like AE Works and office outfitting specialist BW, among its clients. It has recently closed a £3.3m seed round led by Oxford Science Enterprises. The team was also shortlisted for the Trimble 0-60 challenge, which recognises innovative startups transforming the construction and surveying industry.
The team plans to integrate NavLive in autonomous robots and drones in the future to revolutionise the building industry worldwide.
NavLive says, “combined with building information modelling and digital twin integration, NavLive will be a core tool for the future of digital construction”.
View the full Startups 100 Index for 2026
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