Boxabl, the pre-fab housing company Elon Musk made famous, has just raised $19 million in crowd-funding to build the world’s largest pre-fab home manufacturing center.
Boxabl first gained fame when Tesla COE Elon Musk swore to sell everything he owned and not own a house. According to reports, he made good on the promise, moving to a small house in Texas after selling all of his mansions.
Rumors at the time claimed the house he had moved into was a pre-fabricated unit produced by Boxabl, however it was later revealed that the $50,000 house in question was just being used as a guest house on his property.
Nevertheless, Boxabl’s popularity has been increasing as demand for smaller homes has skyrocketed in the face of a growing home-affordability problem that appears it will persist even in the face of a recession.
The Boxabl Casita is the company’s premier model. It is a 20 foot by 20 foot accessory dwelling unit fitted out as a studio apartment with a full-sized kitchen, bathroom, and living room. It is deigned to be delivered to the site and installed in one hour, for an expected price of $50,000.
Business has been booming for the startup. Boxabl just completed a $9.2 million order for the US government, as it maintains a waitlist for currently over 120,000 units.
To meet this demand the company has just set out to finance the world’s largest and most advanced home-factory with the help of institutional and retail investors. So far D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI) is suppling strategic investment, agreeing to share resources to help the company scale, as well as placing an order for 100 units. The company has also begun raising capital on StartEngine. Its Regulation A+ offering allows non-accredited investors to purchase preferred shares with a $1,000 minimum investment.
So far the company’s StartEngine campaign has already produced more than $19 million in funding, on top of the $55 million the company had already raised, making it appear that tiny homes will be big business going forward.