Abel Van Steenweghen
| Abel Van Steenweghen | |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, software executive |
|---|---|
| Known for | Co-founder and CEO of Macadamia |
| Website | abel.so |
Abel Van Steenweghen is a Belgian entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Macadamia, a software company that builds artificial intelligence agents for complex engineering projects. The company was part of the Y Combinator Winter 2025 batch.[1]
Career
Prior to founding Macadamia, Van Steenweghen participated in the Buildspace SF2 cohort and was a graduate of the Buildspace Nights & Weekends program. During this period he developed independent AI applications, including a product called StudySets.[2]
Van Steenweghen co-founded Macadamia in 2025 alongside Brecht Pierreux. The company develops AI agents designed to automate repetitive engineering and business processes in industries such as mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and construction. Macadamia's platform integrates with a range of engineering data sources, technical documentation, and third-party software tools commonly used in these sectors, including products from Autodesk, Ansys, Dassault Systèmes, MATLAB, and COMSOL, among others.[3]
The company's AI agents are capable of tasks such as generating AutoCAD designs, verifying dimension accuracy, cross-referencing piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) with equipment lists, and flagging inconsistencies in technical documentation. Macadamia targets industrial engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) teams in particular, aiming to automate low-leverage work that traditionally requires significant manual effort. The platform holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification and is GDPR compliant.[4]
Van Steenweghen has been based in San Francisco, California. In early 2026, he spoke about Macadamia at the BuiltWorlds conference, discussing the adoption of AI in the construction and engineering industries.[5]
As of 2025, Macadamia had two employees and was actively hiring for founding roles including a Founding GTM Lead and a Founding Full-Stack Engineer to build generalizable AI agents for the platform.[6]
References
- ↑ "Macadamia: AI Agents for Complex Engineering Projects". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Abel Van Steenweghen: StudySets, BuildSpace, UGC | #9". 'Wave AI Podcast Notes}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Macadamia". 'Macadamia Labs}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Macadamia". 'Macadamia Labs}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Abel Van Steenweghen on LinkedIn". 'LinkedIn}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Macadamia: AI Agents for Complex Engineering Projects". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.