Amsterdam AI startup Struck raises €250,000 and exits stealth mode

Amsterdam-based startup Struck has secured €250,000 in funding and has emerged from stealth mode. The announcement was made on 14 June 2024. The company focuses on AI-driven building regulation compliance and serves architects and property developers in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Struck was founded in 2024 by Nikhil Nagaraj and Max van Riel, who met during investor Antler's first Central European residency in Amsterdam in the autumn of 2023. Nagaraj has a background as an AI/ML engineer at Ghent-based ML6; Van Riel previously worked at ING in the Netherlands, Canada and Spain, and was co-founder of mobile payments startup Payconiq.

Two funding sources

The €250,000 comes from two sources. Antler invested €100,000 as a pre-seed round, while Rabobank provided an Innovation Loan of €150,000. Struck intends to use the capital to further develop its product suite.

Ronald Jan Schuurs, partner at Antler, spoke positively about Struck's approach to simplifying complex regulations in the construction sector. Through its residency programme in Amsterdam, Antler also played a role in bringing the two founders together.

What the platform does

Struck offers an AI platform that helps architects and developers search and apply building regulations. Building rules vary by municipality and are updated regularly; keeping track of them manually is time-consuming. Struck's platform features a document library covering the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and can generate 3D AI-generated building volumes to make regulatory compliance more transparent.

The aim is to simplify the compliance process around construction projects and give building professionals greater certainty about the feasibility of their plans within applicable regulations.

Founders' backgrounds

Nikhil Nagaraj studied at KU Leuven and began his career as an AI/ML engineer at ML6 in Ghent. Max van Riel has a financial background through ING, where he worked across multiple countries. He co-founded Payconiq, a mobile payment service that operated in Belgium and the Netherlands, and later worked in the security and property technology sector at Eagle Eye Networks. The combination of technical AI expertise and experience in finance and real estate forms the foundation of the founding duo.

Market position

Struck operates at the intersection of AI technology and regulatory compliance in the construction sector, a segment to which European policymakers are devoting increasing attention in the context of digitalising permitting and spatial planning. The decision to operate in both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom simultaneously points to early international ambitions. The Struck website now also references a €2 million seed round, suggesting that growth has continued since this initial announcement.

For other early-stage AI startups in the Dutch ecosystem, Struck illustrates how a combination of a programme investor such as Antler and a bank innovation loan can form an initial capital base. It also demonstrates that vertical AI applications targeting specific sectors with complex regulatory frameworks are attractive to both venture and bank financing at an early stage.