Bay Area Modular Home-Builder Factory OS Raises $22.7 Million, SEC Filings Show
2nd July 2019
Factory OS is in the business of designing and building homes using pre-fabricated, modular components. Its first customer was Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which in 2017 ordered 300 apartment units from the company, according to Wall Street Journal reporting from the time. The reported value of that deal was between $25 million and $30 million. Unnamed experts cited by the Wall Street Journal said that modular, pre-fabricated construction can reduce construction costs by 25 to 50 percent in the Bay Area.
In 2018, the company opened a sprawling manufacturing facility in Vallejo which can produce 2,000 to 3,000 units per year, according to local Fox affiliate KTVU. Describing the facility, the KTVU article states that, “[h]ouses will be moved along the assembly line by cranes and industrial air cushions. At two dozen assembly stations, 150 to 250 union employees will build the modules from the inside out. The modules, some as large as 16 feet by 70 feet, will likely contain two or more living units, studio sized to multi bedrooms.”
The housing units are then loaded onto trucks and shipped whole to building sites. Factory OS is currently working on developments in West Oakland and El Cirrito.