About Us

Building commercial decision intelligence for construction tendering

Most teams bid on complex projects with incomplete information. Volve structures, traces, and validates every requirement across your full document set - so you price with certainty and win work that's actually deliverable.

ORIGIN STORY

Why Volve

The name comes from the völva, the seeress of Norse mythology. People went to her before they committed, not after. She was the one expected to see what others could not.

Construction has its own version. The senior professional on the team whose instinct everyone trusts, because there has never been anything better to trust. That judgment is usually right. It is almost never reproducible.

Volve exists to put evidence behind it.

She was the one expected to see what others could not.

Built for the complexity of construction, not adapted from it

Construction cranes beside a building under construction

Our Purpose

Built for the complexity of construction, not adapted from it

Founded in 2024, Volve was built from the ground up for construction - not repurposed from a generic AI tool. We saw how much critical information was being lost in manual tender review: missed requirements, untracked obligations, and learnings that disappeared when the contract was signed. Volve replaces that with structured, traceable insight that teams can act on, defend, and build from.

The Volve Way

How we work

As a company we are measured on results. As a team we work on performance, the only input we control. That takes clear direction and honest review.

Ownership

Drive progress. Show your work early, especially when it isn’t working, and make it easy for others to do the same. Flag what you see, whatever the area.

Curiosity

The ground moves every quarter. Stay ahead of it, and question how things are done, ours included.

Humility

Customers and colleagues know things we don’t. Change your mind out loud when the evidence turns.

Most of what goes wrong on a construction project is decided before anyone breaks ground. The phase where projects are won, scoped, and priced is also where the biggest risks get set. Not because people are careless. Because the information is incomplete, the pressure is high, and the tools haven't kept up. That's what we started Volve to fix.

Herman B. Smith

Co-Founder & CEO

Our Founders

Behind the Brand

Herman B. Smith

Co-Founder & CEO

Civil engineer with more than 10 years in construction, including CDO-level experience at one of the Nordic region's largest consultancies. Led billion-NOK projects across both client and contractor sides before founding Volve to build what the industry was missing.

Abyl Ikshanov

Co-Founder & CTO

Deep-tech engineering leader with scale-up experience building and shipping complex technical systems. Previously CTO at a Norwegian robotics company, where he led development from zero to a commercially certified product. Holds an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of St Andrews.

Alf Jørgen Dovland

Co-Founder & COO

Senior Consultant at Capgemini Invent and frog before co-founding Volve, advising large enterprises on commercial growth, process design, and change management. Brings cross-industry strategy and execution experience to Volve's commercial and operational build-out.

Team

The people behind Volve

An international, diverse team in both origin, expertise, location, and mindset, combining construction experience and deep tech with a shared focus on making complex project information clearer and decisions easier to trust.

Lena Rudstrøm

VP International Business Development

Tor Jacobsen

Head of Construction Domain

Matthew Harrison-Raft

Lead Product Designer

Simon Albers

Customer Success Lead

Eirin Bye

Customer Success Lead

Mouhaned Chebaane

Senior Python Engineer

Vasyl Polishchuk

Full Stack Engineer

Mohamed Zayed Ahmed

AI Engineer

Håkon Pilvik

Business development

Lavrans Løvgren

Business development

Our advisors

Christoffer Herheim

Advisor (Optio Incentives)

Kristian Jul Røsjø

Advisor

Silvija Seres

Advisor (Technorocks)

Daniel Kjørberg Siraj

Advisor (Presis Infra)

How We Work

Trusted investors and partners

We are proudly supported by Skyfall Ventures, J12, Norrsken Evolve, OBOS Ventures, Antler and StartupLab, strategic partners who share our conviction that specialized AI is crucial for fundamentally enhancing decision-making in construction projects.

Let’s talk

Bring us a tender

Show us a live or recent tender and we will show you what Volve finds.

Book a demo