MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.– Aro Homes, the tech-enabled homebuilding startup that designs and builds carbon-negative, precision-engineered and user experience-optimized homes faster and more cost-effectively than traditional homes, today announced its public launch with $21 million in funding. The company was incubated by Innovation Endeavors and represents its continued commitment to funding disruptive businesses in massive industries. Western Technology Investment and Stanford University also participated.
“The way we live has changed, but our homes — and the way we build them — haven’t kept up,” said Aro Homes Co-CEO Carl Gish. “Challenges across the housing market continue to mount, and we are driven to meet this crisis with the urgency it requires. Residential housing contributes 23% of global carbon emissions, and we believe it’s past time we apply technology and design to make homes more sustainable and livable. Aro Homes has partnered with world-renowned architects to design homes that generate more energy than they use and are extremely resource-efficient; using half the water of a comparable home. We are thrilled to announce our launch and set a new standard for housing that is as good for people as it is for the planet.”
Aro’s approach addresses the lack of innovation seen in residential homebuilding over the past several decades. While cars are starting to drive themselves and societies contemplate homebuilding on Mars in the not-so-distant future, the U.S. is still plagued by a homebuilding process that is inefficient, slow and costly; 40% of labor and materials are wasted, raw material costs are unnecessarily elevated, and the resulting homes are bad for the environment.
Aro will take the building process down from 18 months to 90 days. It owns the process end to end, using machine learning to identify optimal properties. Machine learning also informed the development of Aro’s designs, as its algorithms ingested scores of property data to assess local zoning requirements as well as the sustainability and livability goals.
“Though housing has needed to be revolutionized for some time, few companies have met the challenge with the ambition and clarity of vision as the Aro team,” said Scott Brady, Managing Partner at Innovation Endeavors. “Aro has unlocked a huge advantage by using a multidisciplinary approach and reimagining how homes are designed and built; they are raising the bar for what we should expect from a sustainability and design perspective. We’re thrilled to partner with them on this journey.”
