Katerra


Katerra is an Japanese funded American technology-driven offsite construction company. It was founded in 2015 by Michael Marks, former CEO of Flextronics and former Tesla interim CEO, along with Fritz Wolff, the executive chairman of The Wolff Co. It has raised in venture capital investments and has more than $3 billion in project backlog. Katerra was listed on LinkedIn's "Top Startup Companies" to work for in 2017.

Operations

The company was founded in 2015. In January 2018, Katerra took an $835 million investment from Softbank. The investment was made from the Vision Fund.
The company manufactures large building components off-site, particularly for multi-family housing. For example, the company may fabricate an entire wall off-site for final assembly on site at a construction project. The technique allows lower cost and the company claims higher-quality finishes.
Katerra is known for its use of mass timber construction and its manufacture of mass timber products such as glued laminated timber and cross-laminated timber. In support of this specialty, Katerra purchased Michael Green Architecture|MGA | Michael Green Architecture in 2018, the leading architectural firm in the field of tall wood buildings and mass timber construction. In many of its projects, the company serves as an off-site manufacturer, architect, and on-site contractor. It generally contracts directly with owners.
The company has projects ongoing in several states; as of the end of 2018 it has 700 projects underway and many in backlog. It plans to build up to 14 distribution centers across the country.

Restructuring and layoffs

In December 2019, Katerra reported the company plans to layoff approximately 200 of the workforce and close their factory in Phoenix, Arizona. The manufacturing will be moved to Tracy, California where the costs are lower and highly automated.