Austin—Icon Technology, a company that builds 3D-printed homes and was permitted to construct its first home in Austin, TX, earlier this year, has closed a $9 million seed round of funding.
The company plans to use some of the money to continue building homes in the U.S. and in the developing world, where it is working with a nonprofit organization, New Story, to build 3D-printed homes. New Story and Icon developed a 3D printer for fabricating large objects, called the Vulcan, which the groups say can print a home in 24 hours at a cost of $4,000. You can see the Austin home, which was the first 3D home in the U.S. to receive a building permit, here. The first home cost a bit more and took longer to develop than Icon expects future homes to: the cost was about $10,000 and took about 48 hours, Icon says.
Other 3D printers have been designed to build homes or similar constructions, including by Apis Cor 3D and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as CNN has reported. Icon says its technology stands out from others because it can be used to print the home on-site, rather than being pieced together in a warehouse. This approach lends itself to the work with New Story outside the U.S., Icon says.
New Story was founded as a startup nonprofit that raised money through crowdfunding campaigns to build homes for families who lost theirs in a natural disaster, according to Techcrunch. New Story went through San Francisco-based accelerator Y Combinator. The nonprofit connected with Icon after the three founders, Alex Le Roux, Jason Ballard, and Evan Loomis started developing the company about two years ago, according to Icon’s website.
New Story is working to begin building homes in El Salvador next year, when Icon also wants to bring new home construction in the U.S.
Oakhouse Partners led the funding round. The other participating investors were a range of companies, from U.S. home builders to Middle East developers. They included D.R. Horton; Emaar, the largest developer in the Middle East; Austin accelerator Capital Factory; CAZ Investments; Cielo Property Group; Engage Ventures; MicroVentures; Saturn Five; Shadow Ventures; Trust Ventures; Verbena Road Holdings; and Vulcan Capital, according to a news release. In September, Icon reported it had raised $6.8 million in a securities filing.
