TechCrunch is reporting that ICON, a construction technologies company pioneering large-scale 3D printing, has just raised $185 million in venture capital to build more structures — and that the company is now approaching a valuation of $2 billion.
The surge of $185 million came in a financing round led by Tiger Global Management, TechCrunch reported it learned exclusively.
"The financing is said to be an extension of ICON’s $207 million Series B that was announced last August," added the Feb. 18 report by TechCrunch's Mary Ann Azevedo.
As further explained by the report:
ICON was founded in late 2017 and launched during SXSW in March 2018 with the first permitted 3D-printed home in the U.S. That 350-square-foot house took about 48 hours (at 25% speed) to print.
ICON purposely chose concrete as a material because, as co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard put it, “It’s one of the most resilient materials on Earth.”
At the time of its last raise, the startup said it had delivered more than two dozen 3D-printed homes and structures across the U.S. and Mexico. More than half of those homes have been for the homeless or those in chronic poverty.
In October 2021, Lennar, one of the nation’s leading homebuilders, announced an partnership extension with ICON to build the companies' largest community of 3D-printed homes to date, using ICON’s innovative robotics, software and advanced materials technologies.
Breaking ground in 2022, the 100-home community will be co-designed by the acclaimed architecture firm, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.
That announcement deepened a relationship that began with Lennar’s investment in the Austin, TX-based ICON’s $207-million financing round last year.
TechCrunch's Azevedo noted that the company's previous funders have included Norwest Venture Partners, 8VC, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), BOND, Citi Crosstimbers, Ensemble, Fifth Wall, LENx, Moderne Ventures and Oakhouse Partners, and others -- and that with the latest financing extension, ICON has now raised a total of $451 million in equity.
