Reinventing home appraisals with AI nets $5 million raise

Humza Ahmed (BASc, in progress) didn’t come to the University of Waterloo imagining he’d become a tech founder. In fact, his eyes were set far higher.

“I was planning to become an astronaut,” he says. “I was super into aerospace.”

But an unexpected twist in his co-op plans, and the influence of Waterloo’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, launched him on a wildly different trajectory. Today, Ahmed is the founder and CEO of Automax.ai, a fast-growing startup reinventing the home appraisal industry across North America.

Ahmed has now raised more than $5 million in funding, including an initial preseed investment followed by a major raise after completing Y Combinator.

Using Automax.ai’s mobile app, homeowners can scan their property in minutes. The app captures a 3D model and precise measurements and uses 700 data points using built-in LiDAR and computer vision. Licensed appraisers then review and sign the final reports.

The result is a process that traditionally takes weeks is now completed in 24 hours.

Ahmed credits Waterloo’s startup ecosystem including Velocity and the Conrad School for Entrepreneurship and Business as critical to his success to date.

Ahmed had never given much thought to entrepreneurship before a chance encounter with the late Dr. Wayne Chang, then director of the Enterprise Co-op (E Co-op) program offered by the Conrad School. Chang encouraged Ahmed to participate in the program, so he registered.

E Co-op gives Waterloo students an opportunity to build a business while earning co-op credit. Ahmed entered with no initial startup idea, so he started building anything he could. “I was just finding businesses and building custom AI solutions for them,” he says. “Dental clinics, e-commerce, basically whatever I could find.”

It wasn’t until he attended a cousin’s week-long wedding that his direction changed.

Most of his extended family are real estate appraisers, a tradition dating back to his grandfather.

As he chatted with his cousins, they asked what he was building. “They said, ‘Humza, we have all these appraisal reports we send overseas to type up and format, maybe there’s something here,’” he says. “And that was my first time seeing light in the eyes of people I’m trying to sell to.”

He sketched a product concept in Figma and posted it on LinkedIn. Days later, the CEO of Canada’s largest appraisal company reached out.

“He eventually became our first customer,” Ahmed says. “We went straight to enterprise as a result.”

Automax.ai looks very different from that early version.

“We actually don’t sell to appraisers anymore at all,” Ahmed explains. Instead, the company now partners directly with lenders, insurers and homeowners.

“There was a really big knowledge gap I had going into this,” he says. “What the Waterloo ecosystem helped with was being great connectors and introducing me to the right people at every stage.”

In particular, mentors like Eric Blondeel helped shape his thinking about different decisions and next steps. “Just talking to him about ideas, about what really matters, about what doesn't, about his experience at Y Combinator. It all helped” Ahmed says.

Pitch competitions taught him how to communicate clearly, a skill that later helped him secure investment.

“I had a lot of success during E Co-op from pitch competitions,” he says. “Learning how to pitch really well reflected into everything later on.”

Nearly all his early investor introductions came through Waterloo alumni networks. That support helped him take his first leap: a $500,000 pre-seed cheque that allowed him to focus full-time on building Automax.ai.

Today, Ahmed builds Automax.ai from San Francisco, where the scale and ambition shocked him but also pushed him to accelerate his own growth.

“You have to surround yourself with people one step ahead,” he says.

Ahmed’s message for current and future Waterloo students is simple.

“If you’re in Waterloo, you’re so privileged. You have six co-op work terms. Six chances to learn, try new experiences, find interesting problems.”

He urges students, even those who don’t see themselves as entrepreneurs, to build something.

“Learn, try new experiences, build things, find interesting problems, experience things as well,” Ahmed says. “Don't waste that time and really try and leverage that time as much as you can and just try things.”

Ahmed plans to keep growing Automax.ai and continue hiring Waterloo talent. “Pretty much everyone I've hired so far has been from Waterloo. Probably more of that coming very soon as well.”

As a founder, he continues to set his sights high as Automax.ai grows.

“It feels like there are 100 fires burning at the same time,” he says. “But you have to do the thing that really matters. That’s what’s on my mind every day.”