Californian startup Aro Homes presents its first luxury prefab homes
The prefabricated building market continues to attract the interest of startups and investors: in the US, Aro Homes has just set down its first house in Mountain View, California, after raising no less than $21 million, from venture capital firm Innovation Endeavors.
Aro Homes are presented as “net-zero”, thanks to a high-performance building envelope, combined with high-efficiency heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, grey water reclamation and solar panels. As such, Aro Homes consume 67% less energy than the energy performance objectives set by the American Institute of Architects for 2030.
Designed in a plant before being assembled on site, the homes can be built in less than 90 days. But that’s not their only special feature: designed by Olson Kundig architecture firm, they’re on sale at a starting price of $4 million – a rather high price tag for a modular construction, or for any new build at that.
Despite its high prices, the startup plans to speedily bring a thousand houses to market annually. However, it intends to scale through mass production in order to make its homes more affordable.
US startup Ingenious Build raises $37 million for its construction project management solution
The Nashville-based startup Ingenious Build has just secured $37 million in Series A funding from Morpheus Ventures and Navitas Capital, as well as Koch Real Estate Investments, American Family Ventures, JLL Spark Global Ventures and Crow Holdings.
Founded in 2016, the startup has created a solution that promotes collaboration between all teams working on a construction project, by integrating real-time data for property owners, developers, general contractors, speciality trades, architects and engineers.
The platform provides real-time visibility concerning project expenses, budget utilisation and financial outcomes, helping users make more informed decisions. As such, the platform can be used to optimise costs in relation to budgets, and to share plans with partners or customers.
These latest funds will allow Ingenious Build to enhance the functionality of its product, expand into new markets and improve its customer relations services.
New York-based startup Welcome Homes presents new AI-powered features to make it easier to buy land for homebuilding
The American startup Welcome Homes has just integrated two new innovative features – called Make an Offer and Land Vetting – into its platform designed to speed up and streamline the process of building a brand-new home.
With Make-an-Offer, customers can submit an offer to purchase a plot of land and a construction project directly via Welcome’s online platform. Once the offer has been submitted, the platform operates like a marketplace: the customer’s offer is distributed to the startup’s network of local manufacturers and partners, who are free to accept or reject the offer.
With Land Vetting, AI is used to vet land buildability in a given area. For this, Welcome Home has developed predictive models that automatically determine the buildability and the estimated build cost for any plot of land.
The startup has already listed more than 19,000 pre-vetted, buildable lots in the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and Georgia. Thanks to AI, Welcome Home intends to rapidly expand into new markets across the US in the coming years.
There’s more…
Belgian startup Vertuoza raises €6 million for its construction digitalization solution – read more on LaLibre.be
French startup Osium AI raises €26 million to speed up new materials innovation – read more on Techcrunch
Indian startup Snaptrude raises $14 million to compete with Autodesk – read more on Techcrunch
French startup Arkeon Energy Systems raises €5.5 million to improve heat pumps – read more on Maddyness
Bill Gates-backed US startup Graphyte showcases new carbon capture technology – read more on Freethink
French platform Obat raises €12 million to make construction industry professionals’ lives easier – read more on Maddyness
