SoftTech Engineers is a technology company that builds the digital operating system for the built world - the software that governments and construction firms use to plan, permit, build, and operate everything from skyscrapers to highways. Founded in 1996 by an IIT Mumbai structural engineer, it began with a tool that competed with Bentley’s STAAD for structural design, capturing roughly a third of the Indian market before being sold in 2011. That sale funded a pivot into codifying building regulations, and over the next three decades the company embedded its rule engine into more than 1,500 cities across 18 Indian states, creating what management calls the industry’s most comprehensive compliance dataset - a recurring approach of turning regulation into software that then becomes hard to replace.
Business segments
A single platform business spanning the entire construction lifecycle - from digital building permits and infrastructure monitoring to construction ERP and sustainability - sold to governments and private enterprises through a mix of licences, transaction fees, and subscriptions.
1. CivitSuite: the digital governance and construction-lifecycle platform
A family of AI-powered modules that digitises every stage of the built environment - plan, permit, build, and sustain - and connects governments, developers, and contractors on a single cloud platform.
- Codified rules as a competitive moat - the platform’s cloud-native rule engine has codified over 5,000 building bye-laws and can be adapted to city, state, or national regulations across different countries. The datasets accumulated from 15 years of processing government permits are described by management as a “gold mine” that is difficult for competitors to replicate, creating high switching costs and long-duration contracts.
- Infrastructure monitoring for public works - CivitINFRA replaces manual, paper-based processes with a digital “common data environment” that lets local and state governments manage the full lifecycle of roads, bridges, waterworks, and buildings. The Airports Authority of India uses it to monitor all airport construction projects in real time, with dashboards, milestone checking, and BIM-based visualisation.
- Construction ERP for private enterprises - CivitBUILD is an all-in-one platform covering tender management, project management, materials, finance, logistics, labour, and sales for private construction companies. It has gained traction in the Middle East and was selected by SCON Projects, a pan-India industrial construction and EPC company, to manage its end-to-end project operations.
- New transaction-based platforms - CivitTDR, launched with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, is India’s first fully digital marketplace for Transferable Development Rights, serving over 18,000 registered developers and TDR owners with online bidding, blockchain-anchored certificates, and integrated stamp-duty payments, where SoftTech earns a fee per transaction. CivitTWIN uses 12 specialised AI agents working around the clock to pre-check building plans and simulate the government permitting process before formal submission, and is used by the BMC to evaluate over 8,000 complex building proposals annually.
2. Legacy and specialist AEC software products
A portfolio of established tools that predate the Civit brand and continue to serve distinct workflows - from CAD-based plan scrutiny to public-works procurement - while feeding domain expertise into the platform.
- The original CAD scrutiny engine - AutoDCR, the technology that later evolved into CivitPERMIT, automates building and layout plan approvals by reading 2D CAD drawings and checking them against Development Control Regulations, reducing human intervention and shortening approval times.
- Public-works procurement software - PWIMS is a web-based integrated works and procurement management system used by large government and civil infrastructure organisations for budget and estimate management, tenders, project management, and asset and inventory management, and is described as fully matured and well accepted by customers.
- Construction ERP for the private sector - OPTICON combines enterprise technologies with nearly 20 years of construction industry domain experience to optimise processes including tender bid management, cost estimation, timeline management, and client billing, operating in a market where competition is high but the growing market size is expected to have a positive impact.
- 3D model-based clearance and citizen compliance - BIMDCR enables automatic scrutiny of building proposals by reading 3D Building Information Models, helping development authorities detect clashes earlier and track unauthorised constructions. RuleBuddy is a citizen-facing AI compliance assistant that lets project owners, architects, and financial institutions validate building rules, NOC fees, and documentary requirements before commissioning construction, and has recently been developed and is ready for commercialization.
3. Energy, sustainability and digital-twin services
A services arm that extends the company’s reach into the operational phase of buildings - energy modelling, green certification, and digital twins - often delivered through international subsidiaries and strategic partnerships.
- Energy modelling and green certification - the company performs energy modelling for commercial, residential, warehouse, and data-centre buildings, and guides clients on obtaining global and local green building certifications including LEED and BCA Green Mark.
- Digital twins for energy optimisation - it develops hybrid digital twins by combining big data with physics-based analysis, and its Singapore subsidiary was selected by Florianópolis International Airport in Brazil to develop a digital twin for energy optimisation.
- Strategic investments in building-tech startups - the company holds a 15% stake in Qi Square, a Singapore-based digital platform for the built environment, and has invested in BtrLyf, a Singapore-based AI cloud platform for building energy management that is also backed by the Singapore Government.
AmpliNxt
A corporate incubation programme that functions as SoftTech’s innovation pipeline - a wholly owned subsidiary that invests in and mentors AEC startups to secure early access to next-generation technology and talent.
- Launched in June 2021 as a first-of-its-kind hybrid corporate venture programme for the AEC sector in India, it has incubated 12 startups, evaluated over 300, and arranged three bootcamps of over 40 startups each.
- The programme allows SoftTech to tap technology and leadership early, supporting its broader platform strategy, with four startups in the programme as of FY24.
Group structure and partners
A network of wholly owned and majority-owned subsidiaries across seven countries - the US, Finland, Singapore, the UAE, the UK, Germany, and India - that handles international sales, implementation, and incubation, supported by technology partnerships with Autodesk, Microsoft, AWS, and Mitsubishi Electric.
- The international subsidiary network includes SoftTech Engineers Inc. (USA, 92% owned), SoftTech Finland OY (100%), SoftTech Digital Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, 100%), SoftTech Digital Software LLC (Dubai, 100%), SoftTech Digital Solutions Limited (UK, 100%), and SoftTech Digital AG (Germany, 100%, acquired for up to EUR 1.1 million).
- The Indian subsidiary Envee Information Technology (80% owned, acquired November 2024) has been associated with MIDC for over 25 years providing digital solutions and ERP software, and its employees’ proficiency with MIDC projects is expected to help SoftTech in implementation and support.
- Sales and channel partnerships include CGI in the USA, CDCI in Malaysia (which manages an eProcurement system with over 180,000 registered businesses), and BIMAGE.
- Notable institutional shareholders include Florintree Technologies LLP (led by Mathew Cyriac) with a 15.6% stake, and East India Udyog Limited with a 10.65% stake.