Dvele raises $14M Series A

Prefab construction startup, Dvele has raised a $14 million Series A round from Crescent Real Estate, the company announced. This comes a few months after Amazon invested in Plant Prefab, which also manufactures customized homes off-site. The companies try to use technology to make the process of building a house more efficient and cost-effective.

Historical Context: Sears sold more than 70,000 kit houses through mail order between 1908 and 1940. The company shipped them via railroad boxcars, and the kits included most of the materials needed to build a house. Upon delivery, many of them were assembled by the new homeowner. Although the idea was brilliant, Sears served as the lender on the houses, and were ultimately forced to default on many of them during the great recession.