Modular Housing Proptech Pioneer Veev Selling Assets

Proptech player Veev, a modular housing company based in Haywood, CA, may be on the verge of closing its doors in the midst of an expansion that expected the Bay Area company to build 300 single-family houses over the next two years.

The company, which was founded in Tel Aviv in 2008 and has constructed more than 170 residential units in Northern California, has decided to sell its assets after failing to secure its latest round of financing, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The company, which according to PitchBook has raised $646M to date and employs 255, including 100 people in an R&D center in Tel Aviv, is actively seeking to sell its US assets in order to mitigate its losses, the report said.

“Veev was in the process of a funding round these last few weeks. Unfortunately, over this past week, due to the macroeconomic environment, the round did not come to fruition at the anticipated closing date,” Veev said, in a statement provided to the Chronicle.

“The company will undergo an assignment for the benefit of creditors process and is hopeful that what was created can live on in some form or fashion. In the meantime, until a buyer is found for the assets, the company’s operations will continue,” the statement said.

Veev manufactured modular walls, roofing and other building segments in its factory and delivered them to construction sites, which they can quickly be attached to each other in a method the company calls “plug and play.” The modular units are produced with pre-attached electrical and plumbing outlets.

According to the newspaper report, Veev acquired properties in California by accumulating debt. Veev said in a message to lenders it is having difficulty making interest payments and is unable to sustain the payments until the properties are divested, the report said.

In an early sign of financial difficulty at Veev, the company laid of an estimated 30% of its workforce at the end of 2022. Investors in the company have included Khosla Ventures, Brookfield Growth and Zeev Ventures.

Until the middle of last year, Veev appeared to be a darling with investors. In March 2021, the company raised $100M through a Tel Aviv Stock Exchange platform. In 2022, Veev raised $400M in a Series D round that valued the company at an estimated $1B.

Veev is not the first modular construction tech startup to go under amid the pullback in venture capital funding. In 2021, Menlo Park, CA-based Katerra, which was backed by Softbank Group’s Vision Fund, filed for bankruptcy protection.