Diamond Age, a Phoenix-based full-stack robotics startup that is automating new home construction to make home ownership more affordable, raised a $50 million Series A round led by Prime Movers Lab. Seed investors Alpaca VC, Dolby Family Ventures, Timber Grove Ventures, and Gaingels all invested above their pro-rata and are joined by Signia Venture Partners. Additionally, 20% of the round was made up of production home builders and land developers.
Diamond Age is building a suite of 26 end-of-arm robotic tools to offset 55% of the manual labor required to build a new home, reducing the construction cycle time from about 9 months to 30 days. The company is also developing additive manufacturing tools that move along a gantry system to add layers of concrete to “print” the interior and exterior walls of the house. These efficiencies could dramatically reduce the almost 7 million single-family home shortage that currently exists in the U.S. housing market.
Using 3D printing and robotics technology, Diamond Age has advanced its automation platform by scaling up the building envelope to enable a 2,000 square foot single story home to be printed and finished with its robotic tool set. Diamond Age delivered its first scaled version of its system as well as a full scale 3-bed, 2-bath house in 11 months – 4 months ahead of schedule. This led to the company’s first contract with a national homebuilder, which will be announced in the coming days.
“Affordable housing is impacting people on a global scale. As the average age for first time homebuyers has moved from mid-twenties to mid-thirties, there’s an increased demand for more rental property – forcing the entire hierarchy of renters into a more competitive market for “quality” housing. Helping the next generation of homebuyers get into their first house faster helps the entire ecosystem of housing,” said Jack Oslan, Co-founder and CEO of Diamond Age.
Diamond Age will use the funding to continue scaling its robotics platform and execute on its first commercial contract to build homes. The company has already doubled in size and plans to add more engineering and fabrication talent. This will help Diamond Age partner with home builders and developers to turn home building into an on-demand product and provide buyers with more options when designing their home.
“Diamond Age’s Factory in the Field™ system brings automation to the construction site to back fill the massive labor shortage in the home construction industry,” said Prime Movers Lab General Partner Suzanne Fletcher. “Jack and his team have hit key milestones ahead of schedule and are transforming the way production homes are constructed so it was an easy decision for Prime Movers Lab to lead the company’s Series A.”
