附近上门

Austin-based construction tech startup has raised $9 million in a seed round of funding.

The company aims to reinvent building affordable homes with the use of 鈥�3D-printers, robotics, and advanced materials,鈥� according to its website. CEO noted the company is motivated by the global housing crisis and a lack of solutions.

鈥淢aking old approaches a little better is not solving the problem,鈥� Ballard said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our mission at ICON to re-imagine the approach to homebuilding and construction and make affordable, dignified housing available to everyone throughout the world. The homebuilding industry needs a complete paradigm shift.鈥�

Some high-profile investors are attempting to fuel that shift. San Francisco-based led the seed financing, which also included participation from 鈥攖he investment arm of the late Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist ; homebuilder ; 鈥攐ne of the largest developers in the Middle East and creator of; and Austin-based accelerator .

Investor , managing partner at Oakhouse Partners and former early executive at and (who has also invested in startups such as , and , is extremely bullish on ICON.

鈥淲hat the ICON team has accomplished in such a short period of time is not only a transformational breakthrough in homebuilding, it is an inspiration for the entire world to think outside the box about how humanity will confront the global housing crisis,鈥� he said in a written statement. 鈥淥akhouse Partners invests in companies that apply innovative technologies to radically improve millions of lives. ICON demonstrates this perfectly through their advanced construction technologies, and we鈥檙e proud to support them on this important mission.鈥�

And that big mission has small designs.

One Brick At A Time

Earlier this year, ICON and non-profit partner in the U.S. to receive a building permit at . The 350-square foot house took about 48 hours (at 25 percent speed) to print at a cost of about $10,000 (although today it would cost about $4,000), according to , co-founder and CEO of ICON. Construction of the home ended up having more than one purpose. Besides essentially serving as the company鈥檚 first prototype, it ended up being a proof of concept for investors.

鈥淐ompleting that home validated what we鈥檙e doing for the investor community. One week before SXSW, there wasn鈥檛 a house,鈥� Ballard said. 鈥淭hen there was a house. We showed we can attract customers as we develop our technology. Our goal in coming years is to be able to print a 1,500 to 2,000 square foot home in about 16 hours.鈥�

ICON deliberately chose to build the house inside the city limits of Austin to prove to people that the technology was ready and could pass the same safety and regulatory requirements that any other building could pass, noted Ballard.

Up until this point, ICON was bootstrapped by its three co-founders. The seed round was slightly oversubscribed but as Ballard told 附近上门 News, 鈥淭he questions you need to ask and the experiments you need to run to get a giant robot ready for scale are a very different game than building a software startup, for example.鈥�

The company plans to use the funds toward further scaling its technology. ICON expects to launch the second generation of its Vulcan printer sometime in the first half of 2019, according to Ballard. ICON also plans to double its staff from 10 to 20 by year鈥檚 end and move into a new lab and office.

ICON Gets Concrete

Next up on ICON鈥檚 agenda is to deliver strategic, signature projects in the U.S. and abroad, including continued work with nonprofit New Story. New Story鈥檚 goal is to print a community of homes for an underserved population in 2019 with each home being around 600-800 square feet. These homes are estimated to cost about $4,000. 聽More 鈥淎mericanized鈥� homes will cost closer to $30,000, according to Ballard.

ICON鈥檚 mobile printer weighs about 2,000 pounds, fully prints on-site, and does not require printing in an off-site location. The entire home is printed seamlessly and produces nearly zero waste and is highly durable, low maintenance, and energy-efficient to operate, according to ICON.

The company currently has an 鈥渙verflow鈥� of demands and requests for houses, including building homes for 鈥淢iddle America.鈥� Investors D.R. Horton and Emaar, for example, are eager to deploy the technology and collaborate on 鈥渧ery innovative housing projects,鈥� Ballard said.

ICON purposely chose concrete as a material because, as Ballard puts it, 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the most resilient materials on Earth.鈥�

鈥淐oncrete is an exceptional performer against flood, fire, wind, mold or insects that could undermine the long-term performance of houses or their life span,鈥� he told 附近上门 News. 鈥淚t can build a cheap, fast, and better product, and we developed a proprietary formula that is unique for our current and future printing projects. My hometown on the Texas Gulf Coast was destroyed by hurricanes two times. We keep spending billions to put houses back together with the same non-resilient materials. At some point, we鈥檝e got to break the doom cycle.鈥�

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