RALEIGH – Digital homebuilding company Atmos will continue to build out its virtual homebuilding platform following a $12.5 million Series A fundraising round.

“We’re making custom homebuilding more accessible to people who might never have thought it was possible for them,” said company co-founder and CEO Nicholas Donahue, who grew up in the Triangle, in a statement.

Donahue told WRAL TechWire that though the company is officially headquartered in San Francisco, most of the startup’s employees are based in and work from North Carolina.  And the company is licensed in North Carolina and currently serves customers in the Triangle area and in the Charlotte metropolitan statistical area, as well.

“Home building is not simple, so we saw it as a kind of hybrid model. Since we did not want to pick every little thing, we avoided some upfront costs, but we’ll have chosen enough that makes it unique to us and will not end up with a house that looks just like everyone else’s on the block,” said Dayn Sommer, who built his Durham home using Atmos, in a statement.

WRAL TechWire previously featured the startup following a $2 million seed round in 2020.  Donahue and co-founder Austin Kahn attended North Carolina State University and co-founder Matt Rastovac attended the University of Illinois.

The company’s pitch, in a nutshell: “We give homebuyers the ability to choose the features, the layout that they really care about, without having to settle to buy something that someone else designed,” said Donahue, in an interview with WRAL TechWire.  “And that’s important because homebuyers right now are forced to be more picky about where their money goes, especially with mortgage rates hovering around 7% and continuing to rise.”

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The latest round was led by prior investor Khosla Ventures, and other prior investors JLL Spark, YCombinator, and Sam Altman participated as well.

New investors in this round included the Duke Angel Network, according to the company.

“At a time when people want to make every dollar count, we want homebuyers to know designing a home unique to them is possible with the help of Atmos,” said Donahue, adding that the company’s technology platform brings together both sides of a new construction homebuilding transaction, the builders and the homebuyers.

Vince DeFreitas of Triangle-based Silver Developers said the company’s partnership with Atmos has “simplified the preconstruction process for a custom project” in a statement, adding that working with homebuyers through Atmos enables him to “focus on what I’m best at which is building quality homes.”

Here’s how it works, according to the company:

  • Homebuyers select available, buildable land in a neighborhood of their choosing
  • Next, the homebuyers design a home plan using the company’s technology platform
  • Homebuyers approve a design after reviewing a 3D model of their custom-designed home using the company’s 3d rendering technology.
  • Then, a vetted builder partner receives the approved design and “brings their home to life,” the company noted in a statement