Remember three years ago when Katerra was going to put every one of you out of business?
Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that Japanese private equity behemoth SoftBank Group—which has already invested “roughly $2 billion” in Katerra—will be throwing in another $200 million to “enable Katerra to avoid having to seek bankruptcy protection.”
Three years ago, Katerra was the Godzilla of the offsite movement, poised to reinvent construction worldwide. It raised more money, grew faster, and got more positive press than anyone in the industry had ever seen. Turns out there was just one thing it wasn’t very good at.
As CEO Paal Kibsgaard explained it to WSJ, “I think we underestimated the complexity of executing self-perform projects at a large scale, including manufacturing and material sourcing and managing our own labor.”
Which is just about 100% of what it takes to build a building. READ MORE at the Wall Street Journal.