iMod Structures (IMS), makers of ‘future proof’ modular classrooms, has raised USD11 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 finalise 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,” says 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 neighbourhood.”
Founded in 2009, iMod Structures recognised that transforming traditional classrooms would require significant innovation in classroom design, space utilisation 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 counselled, 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,” says 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.
