Amazon Takes Stake In Prefab Homebuilder

The Amazon Alexa Fund has invested in Plant Prefab, a leading home design and prefabrication company.

The Southern California startup announced it has raised a $6.7 million Series A funding round that also included participation from Obvious Ventures. The funds will be used towards new senior hires, building the marketing and sales team and developing the company’s patented Plant Building System.

“Voice has emerged as a delightful technology in the home, and there are now more than 20,000 Alexa-compatible smart home devices from 3,500 different brands,” Paul Bernard, director of the Alexa Fund, said in a press release. “Plant Prefab is a leader in home design and an emerging, innovative player in home manufacturing. We’re thrilled to support them as they make sustainable, connected homes more accessible to customers and developers.”

Plant Prefab is the country’s first home factory focused on sustainable construction, materials, processes and operations. The company’s unique approach reduces construction time by 50 percent and cost by 10-25 percent in major cities, and its homes are designed and built to minimize the negative impact of development on energy, water, resources and indoor air quality.

“We love working with companies that make a world positive impact on everyday lives. Plant Prefab is focused on dramatically improving efficiencies and environmental responsibility in the $330 billion market for new homes in the US. With increased costs, labor shortages, reduced affordability, and the enormous impact housing has on carbon emissions, there are few challenges more important than creating more accessible, healthy housing,” said Andrew Beebe, managing director of Obvious Ventures.

Launched in 2016, Plant Prefab was spun out of LivingHomes, which built the nation’s first LEED Platinum home.

“In the housing-crunched major cities like Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, along with areas like Silicon Valley, it takes too much time to build a home from groundbreaking to occupancy, and labor shortages, construction delays and increased construction costs are exacerbating this trend even further — and making homes increasingly less affordable,” said Plant Prefab founder and CEO Steve Glenn.

“Building homes in factories addresses these challenges, particularly as we’re able integrate online technology, new building systems, and automation to dramatically reduce the time and cost necessary to design and build high-quality, custom homes,” he added.