About
We are here because you should not need a cousin to check on your build.
ArchTx is the alternative to how Kenyan construction defaults to working — where money leaves the account before the slab is dry, where supervision reports to the contractor being supervised, and where the diaspora finds out about a KES 1.8M runner over WhatsApp on a Sunday. We are building the version that has to work, because the current version demonstrably does not.
Why we built this
The stories that made the newspapers — Banda Homes (reportedly KES 5B), Willstone (reportedly KES 2B) — are the visible tip. The ones that did not make it: your neighbour's KES 1.8M gone with a contractor who stopped answering calls, a slab that was never actually poured despite the receipt, a three-year civil case that ended in a paper judgment nobody could collect on.
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of Kenyans in the diaspora are building at home — often blind, often relying on one relative, often accepting risks they would never accept in Boston, London, or Toronto. The economics are the same. The trust rail is not.
We think construction should feel like every other part of the modern economy: verified counterparties, transparent pricing, payment on completion, and a paper trail when things go wrong. None of that is exotic technology. It just was not built for Kenyan builds. So we built it.
What we are building
- 01A marketplace of architect-designed plans, priced fairly for the region.
- 02A KYC-verified professional network — contractors, supervisors, drone operators, vendors, landscapers.
- 03BuildSafe escrow — milestone-based payment with supervisor-verified release.
- 04Remote-first workflows so the diaspora can build with the same visibility as someone next door.
- 05Structured dispute resolution before civil courts — standardised evidence, panel review, fair outcomes.
What we believe
Six principles that guide the platform. If a feature contradicts them, we do not ship it.
Trust is the product
Escrow, independent supervision, and public ratings are not features — they are the platform. Everything else follows.
The whole trade
Owners, architects, contractors, supervisors, drone operators, materials vendors, landscapers — every role belongs here. Fragmented markets fail everyone.
Diaspora-first, locally rooted
A Kenyan in Boston should be able to build in Kisumu with the same confidence as someone commuting daily to site. FX transparency, remote sign-off, family-view links.
Design is upstream
Great buildings begin with great plans. We invest in the architectural network and treat plans as first-class products, not throwaway inputs.
Respect for the maker
Contractors and tradespeople get paid on time, every time. Reputation is public and portable. Skilled work compounds.
Boringly reliable
Construction is exciting enough. Payments, sign-offs, and dispute paths should be predictable, documented, and dull.
Where we operate
Live in Kenya. Rolling out across Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda through 2026 and 2027. Diaspora clients supported in the US, UK, Canada, and the Gulf.
- • Kenya — live (Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru)
- • Uganda — Q1 2027
- • Tanzania — Q2 2027
- • Rwanda — Q3 2027
Regional focus
We are building for East Africa, not adapting a Western platform. That means M-Pesa first, USD/KES/GBP settlement, KCAA-licensed drone operators, NCA-verified contractors, and county-level land-title context baked into every project.
The diaspora is not an afterthought. Every workflow — from purchase to sign-off — is designed to work identically for someone in Nairobi and someone in London.
Open data & attribution
Parts of our reference plan catalogue build on openly licensed and public-domain sources. We are grateful to the people and institutions who publish them:
- ResPlan dataset by Amr Gour — 17,000+ residential floor-plan geometries (MIT License).
- WikiHouse Foundation — open-source building system (CC-BY-SA-4.0).
- Open Building Institute — modular building library (CC-BY-SA-4.0).
- USDA rural housing blueprints — public-domain US government works.
- Building Technology Heritage Library and pre-1928 US pattern books (Sears, Radford) — public domain, via the Internet Archive.
Reference plans from these sources are clearly badged in the catalogue with their licence and attribution. They are provided for inspiration and study; buildable archt plans are authored or reviewed by licensed architects.
Build the version that works.
Free until you fund your first milestone. Six professional tracks if you supply the trade. One platform either way.