The Katerra
and building
technology story
North Carolina Construction News staff writer
Is a technological/business model revolution about
to overtake North Carolina’s construction industry – yet
we hardly see it coming?
If building materials consultant Mark Mitchell’s per-
ception is correct, Katerra, a new high-tech start-up
combining technology, design, distribution and modu-
lar (factory) construction will soon reshape the industry
in manners similar to the way Uber tore apart the local
taxi industry and Craigslist decimated local newspa-
pers. “In its own way, I predict this will have as much ef-
fect on residential and commercial new construction,”
writes Mitchell, based in Boulder, CO. “Lack of effi-
ciency will make the way (building products) manufac-
turers do business now irrelevant in new construction.
They may be relegated to competing with each other
in the repair/remodel, big box and smaller high-end
custom construction.”
Of course modular building has been around for
decades, serving several niche markets in North Car-
olina and elsewhere. The difference this time is the in-
tegration on a multinational level between technology,
design, manufacturing and delivery – and massive capi-
tal funding for the new enterprises.
Currently leading the pack, Katerra’s company head-
quarters are the Sand Hill Rd. tech venture capitalist
epicenter in Menlo Park, CA, with a construction office
in Scottsdale, AZ and design office in Seattle. It also is
building a Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) factory in
Spokane, WA.
The start-up purportedly has a valuation of about
$2.5 billion, according to PitchBook Data. Early in-
vestors have raised as much as $244 million – and pub-
lished reports indicate the company is preparing to
raise another $200 million this year, at least.
Currently the organization, founded in 2015, has
projects underway in California, Oregon, Washington,
Idaho and Nevada, but there is little stopping it from
The North Carolina Construction News — Winter 2018 — 5