Buffalo's Makeoff lands Launch NY backing as it chases national bid-review contracts
What's the deal? Launch NYDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has invested in Makeoff, a Buffalo-based startup building an automated bid-review platform for commercial electrical contractors. The deal, announced October 29, 2026, sits alongside continued support from Radial VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a venture studio backed by the 43North Foundation. The round size was not disclosed.
What's the endgame? Makeoff's AI acts as a quality-assurance layer for estimators, reviewing project plans across disciplines to flag discrepancies that slip through during bidding. Errors in complex estimates are costly to fix once work starts, contributing to an estimated $6–15 billion in annual rework across US commercial and industrial electrical projects.
What's the traction? Founded in 2025, Makeoff has three paid enterprise pilots and several more in the pipeline. It says it has identified over $24 million in estimating errors across reviewed projects, including one case where its platform caught a $500,000 error on a historical bid.
What's the money for? Makeoff plans to improve risk detection and expand into switchgear vendor quote leveling, a feature that lets contractors compare multiple vendor quotes across a subset of an electrical project.
The startup is also entering the national market, landing contracts with national commercial contractors after starting as an early-stage company. It joined Launch NY's Entrepreneur-in-Residence program in July 2026, where it went through due diligence and pitch preparation before presenting to the investment committee.
What they're saying: "Launch NY got us investor-ready," said Will Zacher, co-founder and chief executive officer of Makeoff. "Working through the seed fund application with their team forced us to tighten our model and defend every assumption in it."
Marnie LaVigne, president and CEO of Launch NY, said the team "built something that solves a real, expensive problem for electrical contractors."
The signal: Makeoff's deal fits a broader push to automate preconstruction work, a field that is crowding fast. In October, Canadian startups TyceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and PataBidDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → each raised about $2 million for AI bid-review or estimating tools, while California's QuotrDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → raised $4 million for a broader estimating and procurement platform. Makeoff's narrower focus on quality-checking complex electrical bids—rather than replacing the whole workflow—is its bet to turn pilots into national contracts, with Launch NY and 43North-backed Radial Ventures anchoring Buffalo's next phase of company-building.
Read more: launchny.org
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