Photo Credit: iMod
iMod Structures is a Mare Island, California-based modular classroom company that recently announced it has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group. Law and consulting firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP were advisors to Goldman Sachs on this funding round. And this round of funding will be used for expanding iMod’s customer engagement and deployment team.
In conjunction with this funding round, Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group managing director Sherry Wang is joining the company’s board of directors along with Forty Six North Advisors principal and co-founder Laurence Pelosi. Wang and Pelosi are joining iMod co-founders John Diserens, Craig Severance, and Reed Walker on the board.
“Our schools are now engaging a generation of students that grew up with smartphones and Instagram at their fingertips from day one,” said 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.”
Launched in 2009, iMod Structures understands that to truly transform traditional classrooms, it would require significant innovation in classroom design, space utilization, and technology. So iMod combines advanced technologies and an innovative new moment frame building design to create the iMod High Performance Building System. Now IMS makes the industry’s only classrooms that are relocatable, reconfigurable, sustainable and long-lasting. The steel-frame classrooms have been awarded Pre-Check approval by the California Division of the State Architect (DSA).
“Given technology is transforming nearly every part of our lives, our nation’s classrooms should be no different,” added 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 neighborhood.”
The high-performance classrooms are available in single and/or two-story configurations. And the classrooms are pre-fabricated in the iMod factory on Mare Island — which is just one hour north of San Francisco. After they are built, it gets delivered to a school site fully assembled and ready for utility hook up and occupancy within days. And the standard iMod classrooms are delivered within six months of a school entering a contract with iMod Structures.
“We are proud to have counseled, advised and supported Goldman Sachs on this important project,” explained Kathleen Brown — who is a government and regulatory partner with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP; former California State Treasurer; Los Angeles Unified School District board member; and advisor to Goldman Sachs on this financing round. “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.”
Since the iMod classrooms are modular, a second-story can be added to a pre-existing building at any time in the future — which conserves open space on a school campus. And the second story of a classroom building can be removed and relocated to another location in order to become the first story of a new school facility.
