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]
As a Y Combinator-backed company, Macadamia received the standard YC investment terms upon acceptance into the Winter 2025 batch. The company was subsequently recognised in industry media as one of the notable AI-driven solutions emerging in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector.[5]
Van Steenweghen has been based in San Francisco, California. In early 2026, he spoke about Macadamia at the BuiltWorlds AI/ML Conference, discussing the adoption of AI in the construction and engineering industries.[6][7] He has also spoken publicly about the challenges facing industrial engineering teams in adopting AI tooling, with a focus on EPC workflows and the gap between general-purpose AI models and domain-specific engineering requirements.
As of early 2026, Macadamia was actively expanding its team, recruiting for founding roles including a Founding GTM Lead and a Founding Full-Stack Engineer, reflecting the company's focus on building generalizable AI agents across engineering verticals.[8]
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.
- ↑ "Macadamia Labs". 'BuiltWorlds}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Macadamia Labs". 'BuiltWorlds}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "2026 AI/ML Conference". 'BuiltWorlds}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ↑ "Founding GTM Lead at Macadamia". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-19.