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The exterior of a studio apartment built at the Factory_OS facility in Vallejo is seen in 2019. The Vallejo startup builds modular housing. Vallejo modular housing startup Factory_OS has raised $55 million from tech giants Google and Facebook, the software firm Autodesk, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and asset manager Lafayette Square Holding.
The money will enable Factory_OS to increase production at its second Mare Island factory and expand to Los Angeles, the company said Friday. It cuts the cost of housing construction by pre-assembling “modules” of apartment buildings and shipping them to project sites. Factory_OS previously raised $22.7 million last year.
The company, which has completed almost 1,000 housing units in Northern California, said its costs are 20% to 40% lower than those of traditional construction. It seeks to revolutionize development, which has relied on the same techniques for decades. San Francisco had the highest construction costs in the world last year, according to consulting firm Turner & Townsend. Factory_OS CEO Rick Holliday said each non-modular apartment can cost upwards of $750,000 to build.
The company was founded in 2017 by Hollday, a veteran developer who also co-founded major affordable builder Bridge Housing, and general contractor executive Larry Pace. They […]
