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Austin-based Icon, one of the biggest players in 3D printed real estate, announced a $200 million Series D financing led by Baillie Gifford and a fund managed by BlackRock, among others. That brings the total funding to $700 million, with the company reporting a value of $1.4 billion.
The fund is based on the latest technology, the Titan multi-story robotic 3D construction system, which was commercially launched in March this year. Previous Icon technology could only build one-story structures. Titan also reduced the average time to build a home by six weeks, reduced the number of workers needed and reduced overall costs by 40%, according to Ikon.
“We are really looking for an investor group who had built-world, physical companies move from early startup proof points to scale,” said Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of Icon, pointing to Baillie Gifford’s experience with Nvidia, Tesla and SpaceX, as well as BlackRock’s massive real estate portfolio.
“It’s just a world-class result for us,” he said.
Titan multi-story robot 3D construction system.
Credit: Casey Dunn
Icon thrives at a time when the traditional housing industry is under stress due to higher interest rates and higher costs for land, labor and materials. There is also a persistent housing shortage, with some estimating that up to four million new homes are still needed to meet current demand.
The funding will be used to scale Titan, as well as develop new technologies. It will also help the company to expand its current footprint in Texas, Florida and Washington, DC, as well as bring it to new markets in the US.
“An Iconic construction system has been developed over the last decade is compelling, not only because it brings new technology to bear, but because it can be with, instead of against, the business reality that forms the success of the project as well,” said Lukas Ward, private company investment manager at Baillie Gifford. “As long-term investors, we look for exactly this kind of big opportunity for our clients, paired with patience, compounding execution.”
Icon previously used the printer on its own projects, like the 3D community outside of Austin that was a project for Lennar. It is now selling the new technology to other builders, with the help of special funding from Wells Fargo. Lenders also offer incentives to home buyers.
“This is a new movement for us, right? Put it in the hands of others, and we have like 10X the demand in terms of real money down the reservation that we actually forecasted the need for next year,” said Ballard, adding that the demand has come from both large publicly traded traders as well as small private companies.
In just eight years, Ikon has come a long way. The company’s goal is to build homes faster, more affordably and more sustainably.
“We hit all these quality, measurable performance metrics. That got people excited,” said Ballard. “This is an industry that is currently suffering and looking for new solutions because the old ways are not working.”
Icon is on pace to see four times its revenue growth this year, according to Ballard, who predicts they will at least double next year, based on the current pipeline. He also said he is looking at a potential IPO in the near future.
Ikon has also collaborated with the US military and NASA. It is now deploying robotic construction systems to, “rebuild military readiness, strengthen national security infrastructure, and extend human presence beyond Earth,” according to the company. For the latter, it was awarded more than $370 million in government contracts to advance Project Olympus, which developed a construction system to eventually build on the moon.
“I think there will be some exciting announcements in the back half of this year from NASA about the moon base, and we’ll stay in lockstep with them, but the program is exciting, and we’re pretty optimistic about it,” Ballard said.