Vardhan Mehta
Co-founder and CEO at Acelab
The rapidly expanding Acelab is one of the most go-go proptech startups addressing the challenging digitalization of real estate’s architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector.
This year Acelab grew out of its original office in Brooklyn, moving to Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center neighborhood, said Vardhan Mehta, who co-founded the company while at Harvard University’s School of Design to solve what he calls the AEC sector’s critical inefficiencies in managing material decisions.
“We’ve addressed the fragmented nature of material knowledge and selection that has plagued design and real estate practices — scattered across drives, outdated PDFs, and locked in senior team members’ minds,” said Mehta. “Acelab has developed the industry’s most robust material data ecosystem powered by AI search to instantly find answers and superior alternatives, especially meaningful during this era of supply chain disruptions, budget pressures and mounting climate demands.”
Acelab’s Material Hub platform serves as a universal language for the building industry, helping project teams evaluate and select materials based on real performance data, costs, lead times and sustainability metrics, according to the company.
In October 2025, Commercial Observer exclusively announced that Acelab had secured $13.5 million in Series A funding. Navitas Capital led the round with participation from investors JLL Spark and DivcoWest. The round also included investments from notable architects Kai-Uwe Bergmann (partner at BIG) and Christopher Sharples (founding principal at SHoP), along with returning investors Pillar VC, Draper Associates, PJC and Transcend Partners. Sharon Prince, founder and CEO at Grace Farms Foundation, also joined as an investor.
The latest round brings Acelab’s total funding to more than $25 million since its founding in 2021. The Series A will expand the startup’s reach to interiors and engineering, as well as geographically to the European Union and the United Kingdom.
Acelab serves more than 20,000 AEC firms and owners, including industry leaders like Gensler, AECOM and Stantec. The company’s database includes more than 150,000 building products across over 15,000 brands, with integrated cost, carbon and sustainability data.
