Reframe: Revolutionizing Construction Through Advanced Manufacturing

Hello VoLo Earth Community,

We are delighted to kick off our latest newsletter with some significant announcements! Our team is expanding, and we are pleased to introduce Elaine Hsieh, who has joined us as a Partner and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Elaine's extensive experience and leadership will be invaluable as we continue to advance our mission and growth. Some of her most recent achievements include catalyzing the market liftoff of critical energy infrastructure technologies as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy’s first Under Secretary for Infrastructure and co-founding RMI’s global climate tech startup accelerator Third Derivative.

In other exciting news, today we finalized a new investment in Reframe Systems — a company that is building one of the most compelling solutions we’ve seen in housing and the built environment, applying technology, automation, and robotics to a sector long overdue for change.

The piece below shares why we invested, and why we believe Reframe’s platform is uniquely positioned to deliver impact at scale.

Reframing the modular home narrative

As we enter the era of “Industry 5.0” we’re seeing a shift from mass production to mass customization. Distributed, software- and robotics-defined manufacturing systems offer not just speed, but flexibility, resilience, and cost control. We are already seeing this scale through initiatives like Palantir’s Warp Speed initiative. 

One sector that stands to benefit distinctly is construction, and particularly housing. The U.S. housing shortage remains acute, especially in the “missing middle” — 2-50 unit developments that enable walkable neighborhoods, infill growth, and urban density. These projects have historically been too complex for traditional builders and too small to justify attention from large developers.

Multiple waves of modular construction have come and gone. The core problems of labor shortages, rising costs, and the lack of scalable mid-density housing haven’t changed. On the contrary, they’ve only intensified. But the earlier models failed for clear, structural reasons. 

Most Modular 1.0 and 2.0 players adopted a high-capex, low-flexibility approach. They built large centralized factories (often $50–$100M in cost) that were slow to ramp and geographically inflexible. To make that model work, they had to chase large, risk-averse developers, resulting in poor product-market fit.

At the same time, rigid assembly lines couldn’t adapt to local codes, variable site conditions, or the long tail of real-world complexity. Many leaned heavily into proprietary materials (e.g., composites or 3D-printed components), introducing unnecessary supply chain risk. Most failed to deliver meaningful labor productivity gains and still relied on skilled trades (on-site or in the fabrication facility) to complete key steps. Lastly, nearly all of the Modular 1.0 and 2.0 players did not take the step of being an on-site General Contractor, which meant unnecessary and challenging risk for development partners with concerns around costs and quality. 

Most of these models ultimately collapsed under their own weight.

Why we are investing in Reframe Systems

Reframe is reimagining homebuilding with robotic microfactories that treat construction like software — turning what has historically been a manual, fragmented process into a scalable, automated system. Just as Amazon revolutionized fulfillment through software-defined logistics, Reframe brings that same precision and repeatability to the built environment. Beyond the concept, Reframe brings the team to execute this playbook; Reframe CEO Vikas Enti and his co-founders bring 11+ years at Amazon where he led warehouse automation, scaling 500K robots. 

Reframe delivers a capital-efficient, scalable solution to one of the most stagnant and underserved segments of the built environment. We see a marked departure from Modular 1.0 and 2.0 in Reframe’s 1) product, 2) market focus, and 3) business model. 

Technology & Product Innovation

• Modular 3.0: Software-defined, matrix-based manufacturing using off-the-shelf materials and adaptable to complex zoning and site variation.

• Software-Augmented Labor: Automation paired with modular workflows allows apprentices to perform high-skill tasks, unlocking margin and labor scalability.

• Validated Tech: Reframe’s first microfactory is fully operational and delivering projects; future facilities will replicate the same system, reducing friction in both financing and scaling. 

Market Opportunity

• Strategic Segment Focus: Reframe targets the 2–50 unit “missing middle” housing segment, where traditional builders lack efficiency and large modular companies can’t compete on cost or flexibility. This segment is newly accessible due to zoning reform and largely underserved by incumbents.

• Built for Infill: Panelized system is optimized for narrow, irregular urban sites that are impractical for traditional or volumetric modular builders.

• Commercial Traction: A growing pipeline with demonstrated delivery and customer reported cost savings above 30% compared to traditional construction.

Business Model & Execution Strategy

• Capital-Efficient Scaling: Microfactories are capital efficient, deploy in under 100 days, and reach breakeven at low utilization.

• Build-to-Order Production: Factories can be built against signed contracts, minimizing working capital exposure and inventory risk.

• Debt-Ready Infrastructure: Use of familiar, off-the-shelf robotics and equipment enables bankability

Amid the noise of the modular home graveyard, it’s clear that Reframe isn’t just a builder, but rather a tech-enabled logistics and industrial automation platform.

In this way, Reframe signals a broader industrial shift. Advancements in robotics, generative design, and AI are converging to create a new category of distributed, software-defined manufacturing. These tools are no longer theoretical, but they mature enough to orchestrate physical workflows across fragmented, localized industries.

Reframe represents scalable, system-level enabling technology to a pervasive and rapidly growing vertical. The same architecture that delivers cheaper, faster housing can also rewire how labor, logistics, and product customization are managed in the built environment. This is not niche innovation — it’s infrastructure logic, repackaged in a modular, capital-light format.

PORTFOLIO

Assessing the energy impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

The Bill’s accelerated phase-out of tax credits for solar and wind projects, coupled with new "foreign entity of concern" (FEOC) restrictions, creates an urgent need for new energy economy companies to quickly begin construction and meticulously audit their supply chains. This policy shift significantly complicates the clean energy landscape, demanding a strategic pivot towards rapid execution and stringent supply chain management to maintain eligibility for remaining incentives.

Meanwhile, the same Bill provided an unexpected two-year extension of the 45V clean hydrogen tax credit's "begin construction" deadline to December 31, 2027, which offers a significant boost for clean H2 technologies like Calicat. This extension provides crucial flexibility for project developers, allowing more time to meet complex eligibility rules and finalize infrastructure, notably free from FEOC restrictions, creating a more stable and attractive investment environment for H2 as a key decarbonization pathway.

Why MP Materials soared 50% after this Pentagon rare earths deal

Rare-earth miner MP Materials (MP) saw its stock surge by nearly 51% after announcing a multi-billion dollar public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense. This collaboration aims to accelerate the development of an end-to-end U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain, reducing dependency on foreign sources like China (who recently added export controls to protect EV battery technology).

As part of the deal, the DOD will invest $400 million in MP Materials preferred stock, making it a top shareholder, to support the construction of a second domestic magnet manufacturing facility and secure a domestic supply of critical rare earth magnets. We discussed the role that the Department of Defense holds on the Climate Tech landscape in our October newsletter on Reimagining the Global Metal Supply.

In a first, solar was Europe’s biggest source of power last month

Solar generated a record 22 % of the EU’s electricity last month — surpassing nuclear and wind — while coal dropped to a historic low of around 6 %. At least 13 member states set new monthly solar generation records (with the Netherlands exceeding 40 % and Greece over 35 %), helping the region manage soaring demand during an intense heat wave.

How to protect clean energy jobs and innovation when facing federal policy headwinds

While federal policy changes threaten to undermine the solar and wind industries, risking as many as 830,000 jobs and raising project costs significantly, Elaine’s former DOE colleagues Jigar Shah and Arnab Pal argue that a clean energy future must now shift to the state and local levels to counter federal rollbacks and safeguard progress in scaling up the new energy economy.

Or, you can run towards the opportunity: The solar house is on fire, but Dean Solon is rushing back in, despite tariff uncertainty and the loss of tax credits. “I’m gonna go from a large Dunkin Donuts to an extra-large Dunkin Donuts now,” he said. “I still, to this day, drive a 2017 Chevy Bolt, 100% electric. I still live in the same house. I didn’t do it for the money then, I don’t do it now.” In fact, Solon’s instinct to tinker and solve problems has thrust him back into the solar manufacturing space at the industry’s most chaotic moment in years. “The renewables building is on fire, and it is hot as f*ck, and everybody’s running away from the fire,” he said. “We have asbestos-clad underwear on. We have our fire suit on, and we got a hose, and we’re running into the fire.”

Sunrun’s 37,000 home batteries are bailing out Puerto Rico’s grid

This summer, more than 37,000 home batteries in Puerto Rico are working together like one giant virtual power plant to keep the lights on and prevent rolling blackouts. Sunrun’s network has grown more than ten times bigger than last year and is ready to jump in for over 75 grid emergencies through October, each time helping cover power shortfalls of up to 50 megawatts. Homeowners get paid at least $200 per battery for pitching in, proving that everyday people can play a big role in keeping the grid stable while cutting the need for dirty, expensive peaker plants.

Court upholds a landmark clean-heat rule in Southern California

A federal court just upheld Southern California’s first-in-the-nation rule targeting NOx emissions from over 1 million gas-fired appliances, clearing the way for commercial and residential electrification. The ruling is important because it draws a key legal distinction that limiting emissions is not the same as banning gas - sidestepping previous precedents such as the strike down on Berkeley’s gas ban.

This ruling offers a roadmap for other districts and sends a market signal to investors and manufacturing with regulatory certainty. We maintain our position that heat pumps are the future of residential and commercial heating.

That’s a good segue for a quick NYT quiz: Should You Get a Heat Pump? Take Our 2-Question Quiz.