MARE ISLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iMod Structures (IMS), makers of ‘Future Proof’ modular classrooms, announced today that it has raised $11 million in a Series A round of funding led by the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group. This financing in equity and warrants marks the first institutional investment in the company. Los Angeles-based law and consulting firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP were advisors to Goldman Sachs on the transaction.
Proceeds of the funding will be used to finalize renovations at the iMod Structures 100,000-square-foot factory on Mare Island in Vallejo, CA, and to expand the company’s customer engagement and deployment team. This enables commercial scale production of iMod classrooms later this year.
Additionally, Sherry Wang, managing director in the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, will join the iMod Structures board of directors along with Laurence Pelosi, co-founder and Principal at Forty Six North Advisors. Pelosi also participated in the new round of funding as a new investor. He and Wang join co-founders John Diserens, Craig Severance and Reed Walker on the board.
“Given technology is transforming nearly every part of our lives, our nation’s classrooms should be no different,” said Ms. Wang. “We are proud to partner with iMod Structures to deepen our commitment to closing the opportunity gap. We are hopeful that their innovative re-architecting of classrooms from the ground up will create modern learning environments for all students, in every neighborhood.”
Founded in 2009, iMod Structures recognized that transforming traditional classrooms would require significant innovation in classroom design, space utilization and technology. As a result, the company has married advanced technologies and an innovative new moment frame building design to create the iMod High Performance Building System. IMS now makes the industry’s only classrooms that are relocatable, reconfigurable, sustainable and long lasting. These steel-frame classrooms have been awarded Pre-Check approval by the California Division of the State Architect (DSA).
“We are proud to have counseled, advised and supported Goldman Sachs on this important project,” said Kathleen Brown, government and regulatory partner with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, former California State Treasurer, Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member, and an advisor to Goldman Sachs on this financing. “California educates more students than any other state in the country, and innovative solutions coming from companies like iMod Structures play a key role in addressing the pressure our school facilities often face.”
Based on the proprietary iMod design, IMS high performance classrooms provide the ultimate in speed of delivery and flexibility. Available in single and/or two-story configurations, the classrooms are pre-fabricated in the iMod factory on Mare Island, just one hour north of San Francisco. They are then delivered to a school site fully assembled and ready for utility hook up and occupancy within days. Standard iMod classrooms are delivered within six months of a school entering into a contact with iMod Structures.
“Our schools are now engaging a generation of students that grew up with smartphones and Instagram at their fingertips from day one,” said Diserens, a co-founder and Chairman of iMod Structures. “They are demanding more stimulating, engaging and healthier learning environments, and we’re responding. Goldman Sachs’ investment and involvement in our business is validation that our strategy is on target and our innovative Future Proof classrooms are the answer.”
With their unique design, iMod classrooms achieve forty feet of clear span in a multi-story configuration without requiring internal structural columns, walls or external trusses. If necessary, a second-story can be added to a pre-existing building at any time in the future, conserving open space on a school campus. And, as student populations ebb and flow with changing demographics, the second story of a classroom building can be removed and relocated to some other location to become the first story of a new school facility.
About iMod Structures
iMod Structures (IMS) is transforming classrooms and how they are built. Combining advanced technologies and progressive new approaches to building design and construction, IMS is designing, manufacturing and installing DSA approved high-performance, pre-fabricated, Future Proof classrooms that are designed specifically as healthy and sustainable 21st Century learning environments. The company was founded in 2009 and is based on Mare Island in Vallejo, Calif. The company is funded by a select group of private investors and major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs. For more information about iMod Structures and its iMod High Performance Building System, please visit www.imodstructures.com.
About Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group (UIG)
Since 2001, the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group has committed over $7 billion to underserved American communities. Partnering with local leaders and non-profits, UIG focuses on comprehensive community development that supports the fundamental building blocks of opportunity, including affordable housing, quality education and healthcare, and growth capital for social enterprises and small businesses.
