Canada is entering what GroundedAI describes as a generational build-out. The federal Major Projects Office has announced 15 nation-building projects representing more than $125 billion in capital investment, and the Build Communities Strong Fund is directing $51 billion into public infrastructure over the next decade. Much of that work touches the underground: transit expansions, pumped hydro, power transmission, water systems, and the mines supplying critical minerals all depend on tunneling and underground construction.

Vancouver-based GroundedAI has raised $2 million to build the tools that help those projects stay on budget. The round was led by Stand Up Ventures, with participation from SOSV, Accelia, BoxOne, The51, LOI VC, and other investors.

The problem the company is solving is well-documented. Research by Bent Flyvbjerg, who GroundedAI describes as the world's leading authority on megaproject performance, shows the average cost overrun on rail and urban transit is 45%. In Toronto, rail transit construction costs have increased nearly eightfold since the mid-1990s. One of the largest drivers is ground conditions — subsurface realities that don't match the model, discovered too late to respond cost-effectively.

"The ground is never exactly what the contract and model say it will be," said Shelby Yee, co-founder and CEO of GroundedAI. "Many tunnelling projects across the world are still managing that gap with paper logs and spreadsheets. If we want this infrastructure decade to deliver, the underground needs a new intelligence layer."

GroundedAI's platform has two core components. Lithos is an iPad-based LiDAR application for underground data capture. Strata is a web platform for georeferencing, mapping, and identifying variances from project budgets and ground models. Together, they give construction teams same-shift visibility into subsurface conditions as they evolve — replacing disconnected tools with a system designed to surface potential multi-million dollar variances while there is still time to act.

The company already works with tier-one engineering firms including Hatch, Vancouver-based Delve Underground, and Austria's Elea iC group.

"We're entering an infrastructure investment cycle that is generational in scale, and the tools being used underground have not kept pace with the complexity or the stakes," said Lucas Perlman, principal at Stand Up Ventures. "The traction they have with tier-one engineering firms at this stage of the company is a strong signal."

Yee previously founded Rockmass Technologies and was named to Forbes 30 Under 30.