Checkfirst raises $1.5 million pre-seed, applying AI to remote inspections and audits

We’ve seen them all. The inspector with a clipboard, walking through a building, checking off when the fire extinguishers were last checked, or whether all the lights are working. They work in the TICC (Testing, Inspection, Certification and Compliance) space and literally tick boxes. And while the job may seem simple enough to perform physically, it’s a whole different story when it has to be done remotely.

Founder Ben Lambert realized precisely that after moving to Portugal, his wife’s property inspection business would have to be run remotely. “It was no longer easy to monitor on-site inspections and obtain reliable information. It could take weeks before the final report is ready,” he told me. Moreover, actually planning the inspections turned out to be at least as big a problem.

Seeing an opportunity, Lambert founded an AI-powered workflow tools startup, Check first, which not only allows companies to perform remote inspections, but also allows companies to schedule inspectors based on geographic location and qualifications. This results in less travel, a lower ecological footprint and ultimately employees are happier. The company has now raised $1.5 million led by Lisbon-based early-stage venture capital firm Olisipo Way, and Hiero VC (a solo GP firm). Notion Capital and angel investors from companies such as Source Point, Busuu, Swogo and FaceIT also participated.

“Like [the product] developed, we saw that the biggest problem wasn’t necessarily just data capture, but that companies make or lose money in planning. It comes at the right time because AI is perfect for scheduling tasks,” he said.

“The biggest problem in the industry is planning, and the nice thing is that with AI you can plan very easily,” he told me. “Suppose an inspector is in London, but needs to be in Munich to check a building. With AI you can understand what they are doing and put it all together. We are creating a planning tool for all these large companies. It’s not just about meeting compliance; it is also planning. They can then use the compliance tool to easily collect data to meet regulatory standards.”

It turns out that the TICC industry is constantly transporting people around the world, Lambert explains.

“For example, there could be an inspector in London today, but the company sends someone from Munich to London because they don’t really understand that they already have a guy in London. If an inspector then flies from Munich to London, they immediately lose all their margin. With our tools, the man who would send the company from Munich now doesn’t have to come to London. That saves the company thousands of euros, if not more.”

Lambert said they “initially used a mix of open source and commercial AI models,” and are now building their own models “based on proprietary image recognition and planning data.”

In terms of competition, Checkfirst is up against some large established compliance players such as Intact Systems, Lumiform, Safety Culture (a unicorn) and Happy Co (focuses on property management).

The difference with Checkfirst, Lambert says, is that it is an API-first solution and uses AI for image recognition and automation, report summarization and scheduling.

The startup is working with several customers on proof-of-concepts, one of which has 30,000 customers, the company claims.

The co-founding team consists of Lambert, CPO Oyvind Henriksen (who started Poq Studio) and CTO Rami Elsawy. Lambert previously worked at Nexmo and Agora.