Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Oculai: Oculai is an AI-powered solution for automated progress and process tracking on construction sites in building and civil engineering. Using cameras, typically mounted on crane towers, and artificial intelligence, we capture manual activities daily, including location and number of personnel from a bird’s-eye perspective. With this data, we can track progress against a planned schedule, evaluate the productivity of workflows, and automate documentation tasks. Projects save 15 percent on site management costs and reduce project duration by 10 to 25 percent.
Munich Startup: But this has existed for ages!
Oculai: There are some webcam providers that offer a few useful AI features, for example counting trucks or alarms when safety zones are breached. However, there is no solution capable of automatically capturing work processes, let alone tracking progress against a given schedule. 360° indoor scanning covers other phases of the value chain.
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Oculai: The idea emerged when our co-founder Constantin was researching “Human Action Recognition with AI” at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nuremberg. Through contacts in the construction industry, the idea came up to use this technology for construction process analysis. Shortly thereafter, Tim, Yannik, and Constantin met through various entrepreneurship programs. After founding in 2021, we developed an MVP, acquired our first paying customer, and hired additional team members within a few months. The first major VC funding round followed in 2023.
Challenge: The project business of the construction industry
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Oculai: The project business of the construction industry. Many of our customers don’t even know themselves when which construction projects will start or in what scope. This made it difficult at first to develop a scalable business model with predictable revenues. We experimented a lot and found a model that works – but the topic remains challenging.
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, where in five years?
Oculai: In one year, we will be on the market with additional products and further expand our international presence. In five years, crane cameras with Oculai technology will be standard equipment on high-rise and civil engineering construction sites in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Our vision is to massively increase the productivity of the industry through centralized monitoring of construction processes.
Access to talent in Munich made easier
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Oculai: We relocated the company from Nuremberg to Munich because access to talent is significantly easier there. Here, awareness of startups as career boosters is very present, whereas in other cities larger corporations tend to be more attractive. We clearly feel the difference.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Oculai: Rather a hidden champion. We have a low marketing budget and focus on growth, business model, and product. We don’t need to be the loudest AI startup – we want to be the most effective one.
