ACIMUS raises ¥65m for AI that builds BIM models from plain language

ACIMUS raises ¥65m for AI that builds BIM models from plain language

14 October 2026: ACIMUS, a Tokyo startup whose browser tool creates building information models from typed instructions, has raised about ¥65 million in a seed round led by Link Capital. Incubate Fund and JR East Startup, the corporate venture arm of East Japan Railway, also took part, and JR East Startup signed a capital and business alliance after a trial in which ACIMUS built simplified models of station buildings from existing drawings.

Not yet independently verified. The release gives the amount as about ¥65 million and quantifies neither the time saved in the JR East trial nor the valuation. Quotations are our translations from Japanese. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Building models by conversation

ACIMUS lets a user type an instruction such as "make a three-storey office" and get an editable BIM model in a web browser, without experience of specialist BIM software. Columns, walls and floors carry attribute data, and models export in IFC, the ISO 16739 exchange format, into the BIM tools architects already use. The company launched the full version in June 2025 and in June 2026 opened a trial programme for ACIMUS KIWARI, which generates batches of design options from a set of conditions. Construction companies and design offices are testing both.

The timing follows a rule change. Japan's land ministry began accepting drawings and IFC models exported from BIM for building confirmation in April 2026 and plans to review BIM data itself from spring 2029, which raises the stakes for firms still working in 2D.

The JR East trial and the money

JR East has about 1,680 station buildings and around 24,000 buildings when related facilities are counted. Using them for BIM-based maintenance means first turning old property drawings into models. In the JR East Startup Program, ACIMUS built simplified maintenance models from those drawings, and both sides say the trial showed model creation time per station could be cut sharply; neither gives a figure. The next step is testing on other stations.

ACIMUS says the round will go to three things: extending BIM conversion of existing buildings, developing KIWARI along with structural and building-code checks for early design, and moving trial customers to full use. It adds that AI agents write more than 90% of its product code and that the money will go into the product rather than headcount.

"We are creating a state where everyone involved with a building can use BIM for planning and management, just by talking to it," said chief executive Koki Kikuchi, in our translation. Yuki Aono, general partner at Link Capital, said ACIMUS "has the potential to greatly change how the construction industry works".

Company background

ACIMUS was founded in September 2024 and is based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. This is its first disclosed round.

Our BIM software category lists 12 products, most of them desktop modelling and coordination tools rather than conversational ones.

Company profile on TrustList: ACIMUS

Sources

• ACIMUS (PR TIMES): seed round of about ¥65 million and capital and business alliance with JR East Startup (in Japanese), 14 October 2026
• JR East Startup: news release on the alliance with ACIMUS (in Japanese), 14 October 2026
• The Bridge: ACIMUS raises approximately ¥65 million to develop BIM with generative AI, 15 October 2026