Diamond Age picks up $50M to put the inspiration for the way forward for homes constructed by robots – TechCrunch

Sizzling on the heels from its $8 million fundraise just a few months ago, Diamond Age is again for a top-up, with a $50 million Sequence A financing to proceed its mission to make homeownership extra inexpensive through the use of 3D printing and robotics applied sciences to make house development considerably cheaper — a welcome change in a world the place there’s a 7-million-home scarcity within the U.S. housing market.

The corporate describes itself as a “full-stack robotics startup,” constructing a collection of instruments that’s designed to take the place of greater than half of the handbook labor related to constructing a brand new house. The side-effect of including a slice of robotics to the combination is that properties that used to take 9 months to construct can now be instantiated into existence in a month or so. The corporate has now developed 26 end-of-arm robotic instruments, on high of a 3D printing system that may print concrete for exterior, inside and roof constructions.

The funding spherical was led by Prime Movers Lab, which focuses on science-driven improvements. Particularly, the investor will get enthusiastic about startups re-inventing vitality, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation and agtech. Seed traders Alpaca VC, Dolby Household Ventures, Timber Grove Ventures and Gaingels all invested above their pro-rata and are joined by Signia Enterprise Companions. Maybe most promisingly for the corporate’s founders, 20% of the spherical was made up of house builders and land builders; it’s at all times an excellent signal when potential clients spend money on startups. 

Since its earlier fundraising spherical, Diamond Age has massively superior its tech, making it doable to print and construct a 2,000-square-foot single-story house. Little question impressing the traders and including some gas to the valuation hearth, the corporate delivered its first scaled model of its system, in addition to a full-scale 3-bed, 2-bath home in 11 months — 4 months forward of schedule. This led to the corporate’s first contract with a nationwide homebuilder, particulars of which the founders have been tight-lipped about for now — however anticipate that announcement to return alongside quickly as properly.

“Reasonably priced housing is impacting folks on a worldwide scale. As the common age for first-time homebuyers has moved from mid-twenties to mid-thirties, there’s an elevated demand for extra rental property — forcing the whole hierarchy of renters right into a extra aggressive marketplace for ‘high quality’ housing,” mentioned Jack Oslan, co-founder and CEO of Diamond Age. “Serving to the subsequent era of homebuyers get into their first home sooner helps the whole ecosystem of housing.”

Diamond Age will use the funding to proceed scaling its robotics platform and execute on its first business contract to construct properties. The corporate has already doubled in dimension and plans so as to add extra engineering and fabrication expertise. It will assist Diamond Age accomplice with house builders and builders to show home-building into an on-demand product and supply consumers with extra choices when designing their house.

“Diamond Age’s Manufacturing unit within the Area system brings automation to the development web site to again fill the large labor scarcity within the house development business,” mentioned Prime Movers Lab Common Associate Suzanne Fletcher. “Jack and his group have hit key milestones forward of schedule and are remodeling the way in which manufacturing properties are constructed, so it was a simple resolution for Prime Movers Lab to steer the corporate’s Sequence A.”