UK building tech firm Automated Structure (Auar) has secured £5.1m in new funding to commercialise its robotic “pop-up micro-factory” system, through which a robotic arm geared up with machine imaginative and prescient and AI capabilities builds timber homes on or near the positioning.
Auar mentioned it helps homebuilders minimize building prices by as much as 40%.
The corporate is now getting ready to advertise the system to mid-sized homebuilders in Europe.
It says builders can lease a micro-factory to provide the total timber construction in 12 hours, reducing onsite labour by as much as 75%.
The funding spherical was led by European early-stage enterprise fund Planet A with participation from Shadow Ventures, Frequent Magic and Concrete VC. Angel traders included Margarita Skarkou, Carmel Rafaeli, Dorothy Chou, Sandro Gianella, and Luke Appleby.
Additionally taking part had been earlier traders Miles Forward, Nicolas Bearelle, and Swiss-Swedish electronics multinational ABB.
Auar teamed up with ABB to develop the system’s robotic arm.
‘Restricted know-how, damaged enterprise fashions’
“Automation is the only greatest industrial alternative in building right this moment, however its adoption has been held again by inflexible design programs, restricted business know-how, and damaged enterprise fashions,” mentioned Planet A investor Sam Baker.
“What stands out with Auar is their capability to embed automation instantly into the sector, delivering scalable worth in a means that’s each worthwhile and sustainable.”
Auar was based in 2019 by chief government Mollie Claypool and Gilles Retsin, CTO and chief architect.
“AUAR is constructing a worldwide, automated building ecosystem for sustainable, inexpensive, and delightful houses at scale, designed to plug into the best way builders already work,” mentioned Claypool.
Gilles Retsin mentioned: “With using inexpensive, versatile robotics that may simply adapt to totally different designs, builders don’t want particular services or huge coaching to get the very best out of our expertise.
“By bringing manufacturing on to the positioning or shut by, we’re reducing out delays and prices.”
Focusing on mid-rise timber housing
Auar says that previously yr it has constructed “a number of” tasks in Belgium and labored on greater than 300 houses.
It acquired a grant from Innovate UK to scale the platform for mid-rise timber housing, which it says can be commercially obtainable early subsequent yr.
Final yr, Auar shipped two micro-factories to the US to investor, Indiana-headquartered Rival Holdings, a agency based in 2023 that invests in new building applied sciences (see additional studying).
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