Katerra was an American technology-driven off-site construction company. It was founded in 2015 by Michael Marks, former CEO of

Flextronics Flex Ltd. (previously known as Flextronics International Ltd. or Flextronics) is an American Singapore-domiciled multinational manufacturing company. It is the third largest global electronics manufacturing services (EMS), original design ...

and former Tesla interim CEO, along with Fritz Wolff, the executive chairman of The Wolff Co. Katerra was listed on LinkedIn's "Top Startup Companies" to work for in 2017. In May 2020, it was announced that as a part of an additional $200 million raise, COO and former

Schlumberger Schlumberger (), doing business as SLB, is a global multinational oilfield services company. Founded in France in 1926, the company is now incorporated as Schlumberger NV in Willemstad, Curaçao, with principal executive offices in Houston ...

CEO

Paal Kibsgaard Paal Kibsgaard (born April 1967) is a Norwegian petroleum engineer and businessman; the former chairman and CEO of Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services company. Early life He was born in Ålesund, Norway in April 1967. Educatio ...

would take over from Michael Marks as CEO of Katerra in June. Some of its independent assets in other regions, including the Middle East would continue to exist as independent entity. In June 2021, Katerra announced plans to shut down, laying off remaining employees without paying out earned personal time off or severance.

History

The company was founded in 2015. In January 2018, Katerra took an $835 million investment from

Softbank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

. The investment was made from the Vision Fund. The company manufactured large building components off-site, particularly for multi-family housing. For example, the company would fabricate an entire wall (including windows) off-site for final assembly on site at a construction project. The technique allowed lower cost and the company claimed higher-quality finishes. Katerra was known for its use of

mass timber Engineered wood, also called mass timber, composite wood, man-made wood, or manufactured board, includes a range of derivative wood products which are manufactured by binding or fixing the strands, particles, fibres, veneers, or boards of wood, ...

construction and its manufacture of mass timber products such as

glued laminated timber Glued laminated timber, commonly referred to as glulam, or sometimes as GLT or GL, is a type of structural engineered wood product constituted by layers of dimensional lumber bonded together with durable, moisture-resistant structural adhesive ...

and

cross-laminated timber Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a subcategory of engineered wood panel product made from gluing together at least three layers of solid-sawn lumber at angles to each other. It is similar to plywood but with distinctively thicker laminations (o ...

. In support of this specialty, Katerra purchased

MGA Mga () is an types of inhabited localities in Russia, urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Kirovsky District, Leningrad Oblast, Kirovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia. Population: The name is almost certainly derived from the iden ...

in 2018, the leading architectural firm in the field of tall wood buildings and mass timber construction. In many of its projects, the company served as an off-site manufacturer, architect, and on-site contractor. It generally contracted directly with owners. Katerra used SAP HANA for real-time data and Building Information Modeling (BIM) software such as Revit for building desig

The company had projects ongoing in several states; as of the end of 2018 it had 700 projects underway and many in backlog. It had plans to build up to 14 distribution centers across the country. In December 2019, Katerra reported the company plans to layoff, lay off approximately 200 of the workforce and close their factory in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. The manufacturing was moved to

Tracy, California Tracy is the second most populated city in San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County, California, United States. The population was 93,000 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Tracy is located inside a geographic triangle form ...

, where the costs were lower and the factory was highly automated. In June 2021 Katerra filed for bankruptcy, blaming the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

as well as an inability to raise new capital following the collapse of its lender,

Greensill Capital Greensill Capital was a financial services company based in the United Kingdom and Australia. Its main business was the provision of supply chain finance, supply chain financing and related services. The company was founded in 2011 by Lex Greensi ...

. Softbank's Vision Fund had reportedly invested more than $2 billion in Katerra in total, including a bailout in December 2020.

References

{{Authority control Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States Technology companies established in 2015 Companies based in Menlo Park, California Defunct Softbank portfolio companies American companies established in 2015 Construction and civil engineering companies established in 2015

History

See also

References