Why We Bet Big on ICON
Why We Bet Big on ICON
3D Printing Buildings for Earth and Beyond
Today, Ensemble VC is thrilled to announce our investment in ICON, a construction technologies company using 3D printing to transform homebuilding.
At Ensemble, we believe the fundamental ingredient to company success is people—the founders and teams translating ideas into products that result in generational-defining companies. And we like to spend time with the full mosaic of the team, top to bottom, to look for characteristics that demonstrate the consistency and resilience required to not only think big but also to execute big.
From the first conversation with the ICON management team, we could see the vision and determination shared across the org and validate the chemistry between co-founders Jason Ballard, Evan Loomis, and Alex Le Roux.
Jason and Evan had been in the trenches together, co-founding a prior sustainable home improvement company and Alex had deeply relevant technical experience as a prior founder of a large-scale 3D printing startup. Together, they had a mission to make housing affordable for everyone but to accomplish this they had to fundamentally change how homes are constructed from the ground up.
It’s well known that homebuilding has not kept pace with demand and population growth. In fact, according to the National Association of Realtors, the United States has a shortage of over 5.5 million housing units.
Similarly, Freddie Mac said the U.S. has a shortage of 3.8 million single-family homes compared to current demand (WSJ). Unfortunately, most modern real estate solutions are focused on incremental progress. Not here.
ICON’s proprietary technology allows homes to be 3D printed with their proprietary robotics, software, and advanced material, which increases speed, reduces waste, and allows more design freedom than traditional methods. ICON has 3D printed more than two dozen homes across the U.S. and Mexico with many more on the way.
The first person to ever live in a 3D-printed home in the U.S. moved into an ICON built home at Community First! Village in Austin, TX and just recently ICON completed the largest 3D-printed structure in North America that will be home to the women and men serving our country.
And this isn’t some dream yet to become reality, their technology is behind several projects from nonprofit organizations and homebuilders, to the Department of Defense and NASA. ICON broke into the mainstream housing market in early 2021 with the first 3D-printed homes for sale in America for developer 3Strands.
Most recently, ICON unveiled its next-generation Vulcan construction system and debuted its new Exploration Series of homes to cooperatively develop new design languages and architectural vernaculars with world-class architects. The first home in the series, “House Zero,” was optimized and designed specifically for 3D printing and features an elevated architectural and energy-efficient design that highlights the benefits of resiliency and sustainability only found in homebuilding through 3D printing. Additional ICON projects are underway to deliver social housing, disaster relief housing, and mainstream housing.
As if that wasn’t enough, ICON received funding from NASA to help imagine humanity’s first home on another world. That’s right—ICON is researching and developing a space-based construction system for future exploration of the Moon.
We are deeply passionate about alleviating the global housing crisis and if this is a mission you share, come join ICON and reimagine homebuilding on Earth and beyond.
From Earth, to the Moon, and beyond!