Diamond Age, a Pleasanton-based robotics startup, has raised $8 million in seed funding to automate new home construction.
The funding round was co-led by Prime Movers Lab and Alpaca VC, with firms like Dolby Family Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels, Towerview Ventures, GFA Venture Partners, and Suffolk Construction also participating. This is the first funding round the startup has run since being founded back in 2019. Ryan Freedman, General Partner at Alpaca VC, referred to the firm’s participation by stating:
“We spent a lot of time in the 3D printing and robotic building space looking for the right team and the right go-to-market that could really become a category-changing and defining company within the real estate construction space. We identified a tremendous opportunity in the amount of efficiency there is to bring in terms of time, quality, and labor to the homebuilding market. When we met Jack & Russell, we knew this was the team with the vision and the technical expertise to change the game.”
The robotics startup uses 3D printing and robotics to make homeownership more affordable by reducing construction costs. The 26 end-of-arm tools Diamond Age is building could reduce required manual labor by 55%, reducing construction times from about 9 months to only 30 days. Jack Oslan, Co-founder and CEO of Diamond Age, referred to the startup’s mission by stating:
“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. 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 robotics startup will use the funding to scale its platform and build a 1,100 square foot demo house, expanding awareness about its solution’s benefits. The American housing mortgage is going through a shortage that has left millions without access to affordable housing, which has prompted startups to use AI, robotics, and other technologies to improve the construction process.
