United Rentals and Home Depot just invested in the AI agent that quotes prices and triages equipment repairs. It's already live inside both.
InstaLILY raised a $60 million Series B with United Rentals and Home Depot Ventures as new strategic investors. Its AI agent, Lily, is already deployed inside both companies handling pricing quotes, delivery routing, and field equipment diagnosis — meaning the rep on the other end of your next rental call may be running on it.
United Rentals and Home Depot Ventures just put money into the AI company whose agent already prices quotes, routes deliveries, and triages broken equipment inside both of their operations. InstaLILY closed a $60 million Series B on July 14, and for a GC or sub, this isn't a story about a startup — it's a story about two of construction's largest vendors putting AI agents into the exact interactions you have with them every week.
What does InstaLILY's AI agent actually do?
InstaLILY, founded in 2023, builds an AI system called Lily that it markets as an "AI Forward Deployed Engineer" — a term borrowed from Palantir's playbook of embedding engineers directly inside a client's operations rather than selling off-the-shelf software. Lily plugs into a distributor's existing systems (ERPs, CRMs, order and dispatch tools), and according to the company it handles:
| Function | What it means on the ground |
|---|---|
| Pricing quotes | Generating price quotes for customers without a rep manually pulling numbers |
| Route planning | Sequencing delivery or service routes for trucks and crews |
| Equipment diagnosis | First-pass triage on equipment problems reported from the field |
| Revenue pursuit | Surfacing sales opportunities across an entire customer base a human sales team can't manually cover |
The company says a "national distributor" — not named in public reporting — generated more than $200 million in new annual sales from software Lily built, by pursuing revenue across accounts a human sales team couldn't cover one by one.
Why does this matter to construction specifically?
Because the round's new investors aren't generic venture funds — they're two of the companies a GC or sub calls constantly. United Rentals is the largest equipment rental company serving US jobsites. Home Depot Ventures is the investment arm of a company that, through its Home Depot Pro and SRS Distribution units, is one of the largest building-materials suppliers to professional contractors. InstaLILY says it has already deployed Lily inside both, along with other industrial distributors like PartsTown and Radwell International.
That means the quote you get back on a boom lift rental, or the confirmation on a materials delivery, may already have an AI agent somewhere in the chain that produced it — generating the number, sequencing the truck, or doing the first read on what's wrong with a piece of returned equipment before a technician looks at it.
Should a GC or sub actually worry about this?
Not panic — but pay attention to two things. First, speed doesn't mean seniority: a quote or diagnosis that comes back fast because an AI agent produced it isn't the same as one a 15-year branch manager reviewed personally. Second, this is a live version of a pattern the Brief flagged when Chinese model pricing started pressuring US AI vendors: the vendors you already pay are quietly changing what's behind the counter, and most won't volunteer that an AI agent — not a person — handled a given interaction unless you ask.
For an ops director or PM managing rental and materials accounts, the practical move is simple: on anything with real dollar exposure — a large equipment quote, a bulk materials order, a disputed damage charge — ask directly whether AI generated the number and confirm a human reviewed it before you sign off. InstaLILY says Lily runs "with people in control," which is a good sign, but it's the vendor's claim, not an audit. Verify it the same way you'd verify any subcontractor's self-reported quality control: by checking the output, not the pitch.
- What is InstaLILY and what does its AI agent Lily do?
- InstaLILY is a New York-based AI company, founded in 2023 by Amit Shah and Sumantro Das, that builds an AI agent called Lily. Lily is pitched as an 'AI Forward Deployed Engineer' — it embeds inside a distributor's existing systems (ERPs, CRMs, quoting tools) and handles operational work like pricing quotes, route planning, and diagnosing equipment problems in the field, rather than being a chatbot layered on top.
- Are United Rentals and Home Depot actually using InstaLILY's AI, or just funding it?
- Both. United Rentals and Home Depot Ventures joined InstaLILY's $60 million Series B, announced July 14, 2026, as new strategic investors — and the company says it has already gone live inside both organizations, alongside distributors like SRS Distribution, PartsTown, and Radwell International.
- Will my equipment rental rep now be an AI agent?
- Not entirely, but increasingly some of the work is. InstaLILY describes Lily as running 'with people in control,' meaning it's built to sit alongside human reps and handle the repeatable parts of the job — generating a quote, routing a delivery, doing first-pass triage on a broken piece of equipment — while people stay in the loop. What share of a given interaction is AI-assisted isn't disclosed and will vary by account.
- How much has InstaLILY raised and how big is this round?
- The Series B is $60 million, led by Energize Capital with Insight Partners increasing its stake and Home Depot Ventures and United Rentals joining as new strategic investors. It brings InstaLILY's total funding to nearly $100 million, and the company says revenue grew 5x over the past year.
- What should a GC or sub do differently because of this?
- Treat AI-generated quotes from equipment rental and materials vendors the same way you'd treat a junior estimator's first pass: useful as a starting point, not final without a human check. Ask your rep whether AI is involved in your quote or dispatch, and don't assume a fast turnaround means someone senior looked at the scope.