Intelligent City Adds $17M to Funding

Housing design and developer Intelligent City, founded in 2008, announced an additional $17 million in funding through a Series-A round to expand its work using robotics, automation, and prefabricated mass timber urban construction. With a previous $6 million raised, the total so far is $23 million.

“Intelligent City will use the funding to scale operations, commercialize its Platforms for Life (P4L) building solution, grow factory automation, and expand its footprint across and beyond Canada,” the company said in its release. “Earlier this year, the company completed testing of its building systems and is now verified to work within the new mass timber high-rise building codes in Canada and the US.”

Major investors include BDC Capital’s Cleantech Practice, Greensoil PropTech Ventures, UIT Growth Equity GP, and Fulmer & Company. There was also participation by “government programs and accelerators such as the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program (IFIT), the Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) Start-Up Fund, and the Next Generation Manufacturing Supercluster (NGen) Manufacturing Project Funding.”

The business model is an interesting collection of technologies. To start is the use of mass timber construction, which employs laminated timbers and lumber “to produce wood panels and beams, which can replace concrete, steel, and masonry as building materials,” as explained by American University. The approach is lower cost, less energy intensive, faster, and is more resistant to certain types of natural disaster like earthquakes.

Parametric software systems run design and factory production. The parametric part, in general software parlance, would mean that designers can provide desired dimensions and then the design changes appropriately to support the intended result. That speeds the design process, and the software can also “run through hundreds of iterations to find the optimal balance between regulations, design intent, and cost.” 

“Intelligent City’s end-to-end, product-based approach uses proprietary parametric software for design, construction cost estimation, carbon footprint confirmation, material quantifications, and precision manufacturing,” the company explains. 

The third leg is the production. Prefabrication should save time on the jobsite. Robots and automation in the factory speed construction of the components sent over for assembly. The approach reduces the need for specialized manual labor, addressing a challenge developers and construction firms have in obtaining enough help to keep projects on schedule. The software generates construction documentation and manufacturing instructions.

“[T]he company’s innovative manufacturing technology brings automation to the prefabrication of building components,” Intelligent City says. “As a result, the company provides data on the life cycle and performance of the building before construction even begins.”