Synaps Raised $3.6M for AI Platform for Architects and Challenged AutoCAD

Austrian-Albanian startup Synaps closed a pre-seed round of $3.6M and is trying to find a place between Figma, AI generators, and classic CAD systems. The company is building a browser-based tool for architects that should speed up drafting, rendering, and collaboration — and eventually compete with AutoCAD.

Round and Traction

Synaps announced the round on April 30, 2026. Lead investor was American Plug and Play, joined by Croatian Fil Rouge Capital. For the team, this continues a rather unusual start: they launched the beta version in November 2025 in Tirana, not in London, Berlin, or San Francisco.

The launch brought together renowned architects and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who studied painting himself and has long supported notable city projects. Within five months of launch, the product, according to the company, attracted 60,000 users, 1,500 daily active users, and hundreds of paying customers, though a full release hasn't come out yet. Before the beta launch, Synaps had collected 10,000 pre-registrations, and promotion through YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn brought over 10 million views with minimal spending.

The team grew from four to seventeen people, and after the founders' trip to Silicon Valley, the startup opened an office in San Francisco.

"We wanted to show real numbers, traction, and trust from domain-specific users," says CEO

Brendon Ahmeti.

What Synaps is Building

Synaps describes its product as a mix of Figma and Lovable, but for architects. The core of the service is a browser-based canvas with real-time collaborative editing and an input line where you can describe a task in natural language. Instead of the usual set of CAD commands, the user formulates an intention, and the system translates it into a drawing or visualization. Within the company, this approach is called vibe designing — essentially, design through text prompts and rapid iterations.

• Real-time collaborative editing right in the browser
• Layout generation from text descriptions
• Vecy AI for vector rendering of floor plans
• 2D, 3D, and video rendering from a single outline
• Unified space for drafting, presentation, and edits

The key module is called Vecy AI. According to Synaps, it is trained on behavioral patterns of architects and can reduce the number of commands by 80%, while speeding up the drawing process approximately 50 times compared to traditional tools. Rendering, the startup claims, can be 100–1000 times faster than existing solutions depending on project complexity. These figures are based on the company's internal tests and have not yet been confirmed by independent audit.

Challenging Autodesk and AutoCAD

This is where direct conflict with Autodesk begins. The AutoCAD family holds around 39% of the global CAD software market, and AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT revenue for the last fiscal year was $1.79 billion, with Autodesk's overall revenue exceeding $6 billion.

For BIM processes, Autodesk dominates with Revit. The problem for new players is that these products have been the de facto standard for decades. But Synaps is betting that the industry is tired of desktop software logic, bloated command sets, and poor collaboration.

This bet is not only of interest to investors. According to Synaps, the platform has been tested or implemented by six of the ten most prominent architecture firms in the world, with feedback from Bjarke Ingels and Kengo Kuma. Plug and Play explains the investment with two industry pain points: rendering takes too long and tools are scattered across different applications.

If the team can truly bring drafting, visualization, and project discussion together in one interface, they will be addressing real, not imaginary demand.

The plan is as follows: release Version 1 in summer 2026 and add more than 20 new AI tools for drafting and post-processing. The goal for September 2026 is 150,000 users, and by year-end, 300,000. In parallel, the American office will scale up, and by the end of 2026 the company is already looking at a window for the next, "double-digit" seed round in millions of dollars.

The market Synaps is targeting is not just architecture firms, but approximately 200 million drafters and designers worldwide.

What This Means

It's too early to call Synaps an AutoCAD killer, but its trajectory shows where the professional software market is shifting: from heavy desktop programs to browser-based AI environments where speed, collaboration, and natural language input are key. If the startup confirms its figures upon full release, architectural software will have one of the most notable new contenders in years.