Backed by $2.15 million in pre-seed financing and an ICC data agreement, the Denver startup puts building code compliance inside Autodesk Revit at the design stage
SAN DIEGO, June 11, 2026 — At the American Institute of Architects Conference on Architecture and Design 2026, Kestrel Labs launched the first compliance platform built natively inside the Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflow, putting jurisdiction-specific code requirements inside Autodesk® Revit®, before drawings reach plan review. Revit is a BIM software that allows architects, engineers, and construction professionals to design in 3D. Kestrel raised $2.15 million in pre-seed financing from New Stack Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Denver Ventures, and Avesta Fund.
The Kestrel Platform includes three features:
- Kestrel Compliance Analysis – One click inside Revit runs a full compliance check in about 30 seconds, with every result tied to the specific model element and cited to the exact code section.
- Kestrel Compliance Chat – An AI building code assistant and thought partner that answers project-specific compliance questions in plain language, cited to the exact code section. Available inside Revit and in the browser.
- Kestrel Portal – A web-based compliance dashboard for project managers and firm leadership with no BIM file required.
Senior architects carrying decades of code knowledge are approaching retirement. Junior architects are billable from day one with limited time for knowledge transfer. Austin Pulford, AIA, NCARB, Co-Founder, brought 20 years of licensed practice to this problem. Marian Pulford, Co-Founder and CEO, built the company around solving it.
Kestrel’s compliance checks draw from a data agreement with the International Code Council (ICC), the global authority on model building codes adopted across the United States and in more than 100 countries.
Marian Pulford, Co-Founder and CEO, Kestrel Labs: “No permit delay, no redesign, no late-stage surprise is random. They most often start in the design phase, when the right information wasn’t there at the right moment. Austin and I studied this for years, then moved to tackle the problem ourselves, from the ground up, for how architects actually work. Kestrel puts the code right inside the BIM workflow, at the moment it can still make a difference. Every architect we talked to had lived this story. Kestrel is for them.”
Micah Gray, AIA, Director of Technology and Innovation, KAI Enterprises: “New hires are billable from week one now. There is little runway to sit with a senior architect and transfer twenty years of code knowledge. Kestrel changes that equation. The code is in the model, visible to everyone, and it does not depend on who is in the room. That is not a small thing for a firm trying to grow.”
Pricing
Annual firm-wide license, no per-seat fees:
- No limits on users, projects, or compliance checks
- Pricing reflects firm size, project complexity, and jurisdictional scope
- Charter customers receive preferred pricing and input on jurisdiction roadmap
Find Kestrel
- Autodesk Design & Make Marketplace
- Trimble Connect Marketplace
- SketchUp integration (coming soon)
Investors
Nick Moran, General Partner, New Stack Ventures: “Construction is one of those industries where everyone knows the problem and nobody has built the infrastructure to fix it. Kestrel came to us with deep domain knowledge, a product already running inside the tools architects use every day, and a data foundation that would take most companies years to assemble. That combination – inside the workflow, grounded in authoritative data, solving a problem the profession has accepted as unsolvable – is exactly what we look for.”
Aaron Stachel, Founding Partner, FirstMile Ventures: “We invested in Kestrel because they understand what most AEC companies miss: compliance is not a feature. It is the foundation. Every permit delay, every round of rework, traces to building code issues in the design process. Kestrel fixes that from inside the BIM model. This is not a workflow improvement but a structural shift for the industry, and this team is built to lead that shift.”
About Kestrel Labs
Kestrel Labs, located in Denver, Colorado, is the first AI-powered building code compliance platform built natively inside BIM and the first structured compliance data layer for the built environment.
kestrellabs.com | kestrellabs.com/aia for AIA 2026 updates
Media Contact: Brian Farber
Monument Square Strategies | [email protected] | 917-568-5066
SOURCE Kestrel Labs
