In a world of spiralling housing costs and endless construction delays, one former architecture professor believes robots building homes in shipping containers could be the solution. Mollie Claypool, co-founder and CEO of Automated Architecture (AUAR), has secured a £5.1M funding round to realise her vision of decentralised, automated housing production.
European early-stage venture fund Planet A leads the funding round, joined by Shadow Ventures, Common Magic, Concrete VC, and angel investors Margarita Skarkou, Carmel Rafaeli, Dorothy Chou, Sandro Gianella, and Luke Appleby. Previous investors Miles Ahead, ABB Robotics Ventures, and Nicolas Bearelle also participated. The investment values AUAR at £26.1M, reflecting the company’s progress and the vast opportunity to transform housing through automation.
With £7.7M raised to date, Claypool and her co-founder Gilles Retsin are tackling one of today’s most fundamental challenges: making sustainable, affordable housing accessible to all.
“AUAR is building a global, automated construction ecosystem for sustainable, affordable, and beautiful homes at scale, designed to plug into the way builders already work,” says Mollie Claypool, Co-Founder and CEO of AUAR. “By enabling the industry to build together, powered by robotics and artificial intelligence, we’re not just offering a new tool — we’re unlocking new possibilities for how homebuilders can grow, innovate, and deliver at scale.”
The story of AUAR: From UCL to automation
AUAR emerged in 2019 when Mollie Claypool (CEO) and Gilles Retsin (CTO & Chief Architect) transformed their decade of research into action. Their deep expertise in robotics, generative design, and AI led them to develop a robust, scalable solution for the construction industry’s most pressing needs.
The company’s story exemplifies how academic research can meet real-world challenges. Both founders spent over a decade as associate professors at UCL’s renowned Bartlett School of Architecture, studying how advanced technologies could transform housing. For Claypool, the move from theory to practice was driven by more than academic interest.
In an exclusive interview with TFN, Claypool explains, “Both Gilles and I have activism in our DNA. I have worked for many years in volunteer roles in environmental and maternal health activism. We started AUAR because we believe that the way we design and make our homes is at the root of that problem and the solution.”
The timing is critical. The construction industry faces mounting pressure from soaring costs, labour shortages, and fragmented supply chains, with a global housing shortage of 2 billion homes. Traditional building techniques can’t keep pace with demand, while the industry generates 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Across Europe, particularly in the UK and Germany, where housing demand is acute, there’s an urgent need for innovative, cost-effective, and scalable building methods.
Claypool notes, “In the UK, the industry missed its 300,000/year housebuilding target by about 25% in 2022-23, and building materials contribute 11% of global emissions. Globally, construction inefficiencies result in £1.6 trillion in unrealised annual revenue.”
The AUAR solution? Robots in shipping containers
Timber construction offers a promising path through this crisis, combining speed, affordability, and sustainability. Yet its potential remains largely untapped due to outdated manufacturing approaches. AUAR is changing that.
AUAR’s solution targets mid-sized homebuilders, enabling them to scale cost-effective timber housing without significant upfront investment or design limitations. Builders rent compact robotic Micro-Factories — delivered in standard containers and operational within 12 weeks — that can produce a complete timber house structure in 12 hours. Each micro-factory can produce up to 180 homes annually.
These micro-factories employ advanced ABB robotics, machine vision, and AI to precisely cut and assemble timber panels for walls, floors, and roofs. The components are then assembled on-site, supporting diverse, customisable home designs.
AUAR’s MasterBuilder software seamlessly connects AI-enhanced design to robotic production, automating the entire process from planning to fabrication. The software generates comprehensive design specifications, materials lists, real-time cost estimates, and precise build timelines. Every design is fully robot-compatible and integrates with industry-standard tools.
This approach delivers lower costs, faster construction, better project control, and increased industry capacity. The system reduces on-site labour by up to 96% and total construction costs by 30–40%. This means faster and more affordable access to high-quality, sustainable homes for individual homeowners, potentially revolutionising the housing market.
“Our product is changing the game in construction. With affordable, flexible robotics that can adapt to different designs, builders don’t need special facilities or massive training to get the best out of our technology. By bringing manufacturing directly to the site or close by, we’re cutting out delays and costs,” said Gilles Retsin, Co-Founder and CTO of AUAR.
Each micro-factory rapidly produces modular timber-frame panels that workers assemble on-site for various home designs. AUAR’s MasterBuilder software orchestrates the process from design through robotic production.
“Our integrated approach to design, robotics, and manufacturing sets us apart,” Claypool tells TFN. “Our Micro-Factories embed within communities, reducing transportation and emissions, while our software coordinates the entire lifecycle from design to construction, enabling mass customisation at scale.”
AUAR’s platform powers the complete value chain for homebuilders, developers, and manufacturers. Their “No Capex” Hardware-as-a-Service/Design-as-a-Service model makes advanced automation accessible without significant capital investments. Partners pay per square meter and receive ongoing remote support and AI-powered automation, eliminating traditional barriers to entry.
Building diverse teams for global impact
In an industry traditionally dominated by men, Claypool has made diversity central to AUAR’s culture. The team is 50% women, which is rare in construction and robotics. “Diversity is fundamental at AUAR, not just in hiring but in thinking. We believe diverse perspectives are essential to designing better systems,” she explains.
When we asked what it is like to be a woman in tech, Claypool advised: “Don’t wait for permission. Build your own networks, stay grounded in your mission, and know that your perspective is not just valid—it’s needed. Diverse leadership creates better outcomes, full stop.”
AUAR’s successful implementations
AUAR has already demonstrated real impact. The company has deployed two robotic micro-factories in the US, completed multiple projects in Belgium, and contributed to over 300 homes. They’ve also initiated construction of “ConstrucThor,” a cutting-edge research facility reimagining sustainable construction.
Their first Belgian project with contractor Vandenbussche showcased the micro-factory manufacturing all structural elements for a two-story building. The structure was prefabricated in under eight hours — potentially reducible to three hours with three micro-factories working in parallel. This project proved the system’s versatility through glulam columns and beams, demonstrating scalability for six-story multifamily housing and flexibility in design elements like window variations.
Additional validation came through a £341,000 Innovate UK SMART grant to scale AUAR’s platform for mid-rise timber housing up to 6 stories. This 14-month project, starting January 2025, will develop a first-of-its-kind mid-rise prototype for testing and regulatory compliance, targeting commercial launch in early 2026. AUAR is currently engaging with homebuilders, developers, and housing providers for early access and pilot opportunities.
Brad Crawford, CEO at Rival Holdings, notes: “The construction industry is under immense pressure, from labour shortages to the growing housing crisis and affordability concerns. These challenges demand bold, innovative solutions, and the AUAR team works hard to make building easier, faster, and higher quality”.
Nick Durham, General Partner at Shadow Ventures, added, “We’ve dreamed for decades about bringing a prefabrication model that would help increase the housing supply through lower construction costs. This model must lower construction costs, increase speed, have the design customisability developers seek, and plug into the existing builder/developer process because not everyone can finance a factory. By bringing its Micro-Factories directly to the job site, AUAR solves the most challenging issue in the prefabrication model. It’s a breakthrough that the world needs.”
Sam Baker, Investor at Planet A, said, “Automation is the single biggest commercial opportunity in construction today, but rigid design systems, limited industry know-how, and broken business models have held back its adoption. What stands out with AUAR is their ability to embed automation directly into the sector, delivering scalable value in a profitable and sustainable way. Their platform answers the urgent need for solutions to real-world constraints around margins, speed, and labour, whilst rapidly scaling the supply of low-carbon housing. A rare combination of world-class technology and industry-beating unit economics positions this team to define the next era of construction.
Scaling towards £200M revenue
The new funding will accelerate key initiatives, including team and partner network growth, product development, and expansion across European markets, including Benelux, DACH, and the Nordics. Their mid-rise timber housing system will launch commercially in early 2026.
Claypool’s vision is ambitious. By 2029, she aims for over 200 homebuilders using AUAR’s platform, generating £200M+ annual revenue — the ultimate goal: building 100,000+ carbon-negative homes by 2030 across 10+ regions. AUAR’s distributed micro-factory network plans to partner with 40 licensees by 2030, enabling production of 75,000+ energy-efficient homes yearly.
“This funding isn’t just capital — it’s momentum,” Claypool reflects. “We’re building not just a company, but an ecosystem that can fundamentally change how we think about homes, technology, and local economies.”
AUAR’s systems-based, decentralised approach sets it apart from competitors focused on centralised manufacturing. Their main challenge comes from large incumbent homebuilders resistant to change, with industry inertia being the primary barrier to scale.
Looking ahead, AUAR is engaging with homebuilders, developers, and housing providers to provide early access to its mid-rise timber housing system. Their roadmap includes North American expansion and continued product development, and they target £1 billion in revenue by 2030.
