Endra launches Power Studio and acquires Planlabs to expand into mechanical engineering
Tech.eu Tamara Djurickovic
Endra launched a new AI tool for electrical engineering and bought Swiss startup Planlabs. It’s pushing from MEP into mechanical work, with plumbing due in 2027.
Based on reporting by Tech.eu, Tamara Djurickovic — read the original for the full story.
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Endra is trying to turn a messy corner of construction software into one system. The company, which builds AI tools for mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering, has launched Endra Power Studio, an agentic platform focused on electrical design. At the same time, it has acquired Swiss AI research company Planlabs to help move deeper into mechanical engineering.
Power Studio pulls electrical design, calculations, simulation and documentation into one workflow. Engineers set the requirements, hand off tasks to AI agents, then review the output as the job moves along. Endra says that setup is meant to replace the familiar patchwork of tools used for calculations, system design and paperwork. In the company’s telling, a 500,000-square-foot commercial building can be electrically designed in less than a day, rather than the roughly two months traditional processes take.
The platform also includes Playbooks, which let firms apply their own engineering standards across projects, plus AI agents for jobs like routing and unit placement. A physics engine checks designs against physical constraints and building codes. Type Rooms, meanwhile, lets one room design be reused across matching rooms in a building. The document engine then produces Revit models, single-line diagrams, shop drawings, panelboard schedules and bills of materials, keeping the paperwork tied to the underlying design.
Endra says engineers still control the process and that customer data is not used to train its models. The pitch is not that software replaces judgment, but that it eats the repetitive parts and leaves the actual thinking to people. Niklas Lindgren, Endra’s CEO and co-founder, said a firm’s engineering judgment is its product, and that Playbooks are meant to preserve that standard across the whole team.
Planlabs extends that idea into mechanical engineering. Founded in Switzerland in 2024, the five-person company builds AI technology that uses geometry, data and physics engines to automate building system design. Rea Sodero, Planlabs’ co-founder and CEO, said the shared goal is coordinated, collision-free systems with engineers still in charge. Endra also plans to add a plumbing module in 2027. The move follows a $50 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, with earlier backing from Notion Capital and Norrsken VC.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the right kind of AI pitch: less chatbot theatre, more boring work that actually needs doing. The industry has spent years stitching together design, calculation and documentation like a bad tax return; Endra is betting firms will pay to stop doing that. That’s a sensible bet, especially in MEP, where workflow pain is the product opportunity.
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