Startup hopes to curb housing shortage with robot arms, 3D printing

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Bay Area company raises $8 million in funding

Home construction has stalled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. One Bay Area tech startup believes it has a possible solution to a growing housing shortage: 3D printing and robot arms.

Diamond Age announced this week that it has earned $8 million in total funding. The company wants to automate the construction of single-family homes and make “the American dream” affordable.

“The affordable housing shortage is a national problem that I want to help solve because it is deeply personal to me. A few years ago, my son and daughter-in-law almost moved away from the Bay Area because of the housing shortage,” said Jack Oslan, Co-founder and CEO of Diamond Age. “We need to build high quality affordable single-family homes for the next generation striving for the American dream, and the only way we can solve this problem is with automation.”

The funding round was led by Alpaca VC and Prime Movers Lab, with additional investments coming from Dolby Family Ventures, Gaingels, Towerview Ventures, Suffolk Construction, Calm Ventures, and GFA Venture Partners.

Diamond Age hopes the technology they develop will reduce the need for human labor by 55% and decrease the construction needed for a single-family home from nine months all the way down to 30 days.

“Construction is still an antiquated industry that has yet to experience the full benefit of technology; it is plagued with inefficiency and massive labor shortages,” said Prime Movers Lab General Partner Suzanne Fletcher. “Diamond Age is building a truly transformative system that will change the buying and building of new production homes forever.”

The company is manufacturing robotic arm attachments in addition to using 3D printing tech to help design and construct exterior and interior walls.

Part of the companies funding will go towards the construction of a 1,100 square foot “demonstration house” meant to be used as proof that the concept works.

The Bay Area housing crunch will be the company’s initial focus. Construction companies will be able to access the technology by using a robotics as a service (RaaS) rental model. Pricing was not revealed in the announcement.

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