Mighty Buildings, which says it is a “provider of automated solutions for modern home building,” issued a news release earlier in August asserting it had launched out of “stealth” after raising a total of $30 million from Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, SV Angel, CoreVC, and others.
“By leveraging a combination of 3D printing and prefab techniques, the company has created a production-as-a-service platform that will automate up to 80 percent of the building process. Its unique approach is both project- and design-agnostic, and can create everything from small complex components to panels to full-size volumetric modules,” the news release says.
By being able to 3D-print more of the building structure, Mighty Buildings can build homes with 95% fewer labor hours at double the speed of conventional construction, with 10 times less waste. A 350-square-foot studio unit can be printed in under 24 hours.
“Because we’re building homes for people to live in, we’ve been very deliberate in carrying out our vision to make housing better, said Slava Solonitsyn, Mighty Buildings’ CEO and co-founder.”This isn’t software that can be debugged on the fly. We’re now ready to scale our production with full confidence in our certifications and code compliance for both our material and technology.”
While the average traditional stick-built home in California costs $327 per sq. ft., Mighty Buildings says its homes cost up to 45 percent less than comparable homes. Its automated production costs are 20 to 30 percent lower than traditional prefab methods. “An added advantage to Mighty Buildings’ prefab approach is its flexibility and efficiency for producing custom floor plans, even at the scale of a single unit,” the statement says. “This is largely due to optimization via a software-driven, design-to-production process and the low cost of printing material.”
“With a strong foundation in robotics, manufacturing, and sustainability, the Mighty Buildings founding team knows the different facets of the issues that face modern housing,” said Eric Migicovsky, partner at Y Combinator. “Accessory dwelling units are just the start in further building out their unique approach to building.”
