Apis Cor
An Apis Cor system 3D printing a building in Dubai, which achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest 3D printed building on Earth
Apis Cor announced on October 12 a milestone in its equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine, with over 200,000 USD being raised in less than a week.
The company states that its vision is to build homes that are accessible, affordable and durable. It is backed by At One Ventures and, as of September 1 2022, the company had raised over 1.1 million USD from retail investors as part of its Reg A+ offering.
Venture capital funding for 3D printing start-ups in industries such as aerospace, healthcare and housing reached 1.5 billion USD in the first half of 2022, but Apis Cor says that this was limited to accredited investors and institutions.
Apis Cor took to equity crowdfunding platform StartEngine as a way to open the door for funding from outside sources. Outside the world of 3D printing, modular home company Boxabl raised over 3.5 million USD in equity crowdfunding in the summer of 2022.
3D printing housing projects have been completed by Apis Cor in Texas and Missouri, it has also signed MoU pre-contracts with companies to develop and 3D print affordable houses in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Wilmington, North Carolina. The company has received 117 letters of intent from construction companies across the United States that it says are eager to start using the Apis Cor robotics system for construction.
Apis Cor has designed 3D printed walls that comply with international building codes, and recently received broad regulatory approval for its construction method in Montana, which became the first US state to grant such approval for 3D printing in construction.
“This is the way the construction industry is going,” said Apis Cor co-founder and CEO Anna Cheniuntai. “Based on our momentum, we think much of the industry will switch to robotic or automated builders in the next five to ten years. Apis Cor’s houses are durable (hurricane and earthquake resistant) and affordable – a finished house can be up to 30% less expensive than a traditionally built house. Our world needs more hard technologies that create tangible products especially like housing and real estate assets.”
The company claims that the world will need more than two billion new homes over the next 80 years, and that at the going rate the demand will not be met. The primary market of Apis Cor is low-rising residential construction including affordable housing and both high-end and average-priced new residential single-family homes.
The business model of Apis Cor is to lease out its printers to construction companies, and exclusively sell its 3D print material as a B2B. The targeted monthly lease of the equipment is 9,000 USD, with the material price being 7 USD per sq ft, making the cost of material for a 1,200 sq ft single-family around the 8,400 USD mark.
Apis Cor claims that a subcontractor that uses the technology could 3D print walls of four houses of this size per month, which would result in profits of 13,500 USD per month. The company says that as of December 2021, it had received 183 enquiries to reserve its 3D printed houses and 3D printers.
Elsewhere in construction 3D printing, Black Buffalo 3D recently announced that its NEXCON printers and proprietary 3D concrete ink mix have been approved by the ICC Evaluation Service, meeting AC509 requirements for 3D printed bearing, nonbearing, and shear walls up to 40ft in height.
