Hot on the heels from its $8 million fundraise just a few months ago, Diamond Age is back for a top-up, with a $50 million Series A financing to continue its mission to make homeownership more affordable by using 3D printing and robotics technologies to make home construction significantly cheaper -- a welcome change in a world where there's a 7-million-home shortage in the U.S. housing market.

The company describes itself as a "full-stack robotics startup," building a suite of tools that is designed to take the place of more than half of the manual labor associated with building a new home. The side-effect of adding a slice of robotics to the mix is that homes that used to take nine months to build can now be instantiated into existence in a month or so. The company has now developed 26 end-of-arm robotic tools, on top of a 3D printing system that can print concrete for exterior, interior and roof structures.

The funding round was led by Prime Movers Lab, which focuses on science-driven innovations. In particular, the investor gets excited about startups re-inventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation and agtech. Seed investors Alpaca VC, Dolby Family Ventures, Timber Grove Ventures and Gaingels all invested above their pro-rata and are joined by Signia Venture Partners. Perhaps most promisingly for the company's founders, 20% of the round was made up of home builders and land developers; it's always a good sign when potential customers invest in startups.

Since its previous fundraising round, Diamond Age has massively advanced its tech, making it possible to print and build a 2,000-square-foot single-story home. No doubt impressing the investors and adding some fuel to the valuation fire, the company delivered its first scaled version of its system, as well as a full-scale 3-bed, 2-bath house in 11 months -- 4 months ahead of schedule. This led to the company’s first contract with a national homebuilder, details of which the founders were tight-lipped about for now -- but expect that announcement to come along soon as well.

"Affordable housing is impacting people on a global scale. As the average age for first-time homebuyers has moved from mid-twenties to mid-thirties, there’s an increased demand for more rental property -- forcing the entire hierarchy of renters into a more competitive market for 'quality' housing," said Jack Oslan, co-founder and CEO of Diamond Age. "Helping the next generation of homebuyers get into their first house faster helps the entire ecosystem of housing.”