Boxabl, a privately held startup based in Las Vegas that’s factory-building affordable and easily transported homes, announced it has sold 176 homes to be used as workforce housing for Freeport MacMoRan, a $60 billion copper mining company and one of Arizona’s largest employers.
Boxabl
The waitlist for Boxabl’s basic Casita model homes now exceeds $10 billion in potential sales when fully delivered. Founded in 2017 by a father and son, Paolo and Galiano Tiramani, along with engineer Kyle Denman, Boxabl manufactures foldable homes that can be shipped anywhere in the world and assembled on site in as little as an hour.
The Casita model includes a fully functioning kitchen and bathroom, along with a bedroom and living room, that unfolds to 375 square feet of space. Modular construction makes the units stackable for multi-story construction, or connectable to expand living space in a single story.
The company debuted their ground-breaking product at the 2019 International Builders Show, where its origami-like construction and surprisingly low $60K price tag generated a great deal of interest and enthusiasm. Orders for the Casita quickly followed, along with the pledges of investment capital the company will need to fulfill those orders.
Boxabl currently has plans to eventually build a new, third factory at a cost of roughly $1 billion. The facility will be “the world’s most advanced housing factory,” fully automated with a planned capacity of rolling finished modular homes off the assembly line at the staggering rate of one house every 5 minutes.
One of Boxabl’s better known investors is Zain Jaffer, founder of the mobile advertising company Vungle, which was acquired by Blackstone in 2019 for $750 million. Another is D.R. Horton, the largest homebuilder in America, which made a strategic investment in Boxabl and ordered 100 of its foldable homes. Crowdfunding platforms like StartEngine, Republic and Wefunder have also contributed to Boxabl’s war chest.
Most of Boxabl’s investment, however, comes directly from individuals exploring the company’s website and intrigued by its unique product. “Get views. Capture leads. Sell to leads.” That formula, according to Boxabl co-founder Galiano Tiramani, has netted the high-tech construction startup over $140 million of investment from over 40,000 investors, along with tens of thousands of orders for foldable homes. “This is a very unusual way to fund a company,” states Tiramani, “and we set records doing it.”
Although the waitlist for Boxabl’s Casita has grown somewhat lengthy, the fledgling company was able to successfully deliver on a $9.2 million contract initiated by the US Department of Defense. The Casita’s lightweight, yet remarkably sturdy, construction, and its rapid assembly time, makes it ideal for military deployment, or similar emergency situations, such as disaster relief. The building materials used in these foldable homes are rated for hurricane-speed winds, and both the interior and exterior of the structure is clad with non-combustible materials that were engineered with fire resistance in mind.
Although the Casita’s unique design and construction makes it ideal for specialized applications, Boxabl intends for its products to satisfy a more general-purpose need. The company’s stated mission is “to significantly lower the cost of homeownership for everyone.” At a time when real estate is escalating beyond the reach of ordinary consumers, Boxabl may not be able to satisfy everyone, but at least 160,000 customers are willing to wait for them to try.
