--- title: "Creating the Robotic Factory Behind the World's Largest Manufacturing Industry: Our Investment in Stansted" description: Outset Ventures leads Stansted’s Seed round. See why the firm backed Hamish Maxwell and his robots automating timber frame and truss manufacturing today. image: https://outset.ventures/hubfs/2026.10.04-StanstedHamishMaxwellPressReleasePortrait00017.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://outset.ventures/blog/creating-the-robotic-factory-behind-the-worlds-largest-manufacturing-industry-our-investment-in-stansted#main-content) [![](https://outset.ventures/hs-fs/hubfs/Outset_BLK_RGB-1.jpg?width=1784&height=667&name=Outset_BLK_RGB-1.jpg)Homepage](https://outset.ventures/) - [Founders](https://outset.ventures/founders) - [Team](https://outset.ventures/team) - [Portfolio](https://outset.ventures/portfolio) - [Investors](https://outset.ventures/investors) - [Momentum Fund](https://outset.ventures/momentum) [Invest in our Latest Fund](https://outset.ventures/momentum) - [Founders](https://outset.ventures/founders) - [Team](https://outset.ventures/team) - [Portfolio](https://outset.ventures/portfolio) - [Investors](https://outset.ventures/investors) - [Momentum Fund](https://outset.ventures/momentum) [Invest in our Latest Fund](https://outset.ventures/momentum) ![](https://outset.ventures/hs-fs/hubfs/2026.10.04-StanstedHamishMaxwellPressReleasePortrait00017.jpg?width=8256&height=5504&name=2026.10.04-StanstedHamishMaxwellPressReleasePortrait00017.jpg) Investment Announcement # Creating the Robotic Factory Behind the World's Largest Manufacturing Industry: Our Investment in Stansted ![Isay Acenas](https://outset.ventures/hs-fs/hubfs/Team/Team_Photo_Isay.png?width=48&height=48&name=Team_Photo_Isay.png) Isay Acenas October 8, 2026 Residential construction is a $5 trillion global industry, with very little of it having been touched by automation. Architectural design has gone digital but the physical manufacturing of the structures themselves has not: they are still cut and assembled by hand by skilled labor interpreting plans one house at a time. And the result is still quality variation and site rework for errors that costs billions of dollars a year per country. Stansted, a Christchurch-based construction automation company, boasts a no-error quality standard and is ready to eat the market faster than anyone else has been able to pull off to date. We are excited to announce Outset's lead investment into [Stansted’s](https://www.stansted.co.nz/) first funding round. The $2M NZD round is joined by NZVC, Flying Fox Ventures, and K1W1. ## Automating the largest yet most stagnant manufacturing industry Construction tech has tried to crack this industry before, and mostly failed for the same reason. Vertical solutions went after the entire supply chain at once and capital and operational complexities buried them across long timeframes. Others scaled just the robotics but then asked builders to switch materials and standardize home shapes, which only added friction at exactly the moment they needed adoption to be easy. Stansted took the opposite approach. Its autonomous manufacturing platform reads conventional architectural plans directly and produces precision timber wall frames and roof trusses of virtually any geometry, with no new materials and no standardized shapes required. The key is that builders keep doing what they already do. They just get a better, cheaper product. ![PXL\_20251028\_013504013.PORTRAIT](https://outset.ventures/hs-fs/hubfs/PXL_20251028_013504013.PORTRAIT.jpg?width=4032&height=2268&name=PXL_20251028_013504013.PORTRAIT.jpg) ## A market that doesn't need convincing The company's  frame and trust beachhead market is worth roughly $500M in New Zealand, $5B across Australia, and $50B in North America, all inside a residential construction industry worth trillions globally. Builders already buy this product today. Stansted isn't creating new behavior, they are replacing an existing supplier with a better one, i.e. the fastest path to the real prize: every home built today trains the platform which generates the detailing logic, engineering rules, and factory operating knowledge needed to automate the remaining $5T construction workflow. ## Enter Hamish Maxwell Stansted was built by one person before it was a company. Hamish Maxwell grew up in rural New Zealand and represented the country on the national rowing team. He went on to study mechanical engineering at the University of Canterbury \[during which he worked on construction sites during the school break\] before becoming a a robotics engineer at Scott Technology designing industrial automation systems. Hamish then left the role to build something of his own, merging his experience Scott with that of his experience in construction. Over the past two years, he personally bootstrapped the design, build, and validation of Stansted's autonomous manufacturing platform. ## Why we invested At Outset, we back companies attacking massive, durable markets through founders who understand both the tech and the industry they're entering. Stansted has already garnered industry traction prior and identified an even larger opportunity beyond that across the full panelized construction workflow. We are proud to back Hamish as he builds the company that finally brings this industry's largest manufacturing category into the robotic age.   ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Foutset.ventures%2Fblog%2Fcreating-the-robotic-factory-behind-the-worlds-largest-manufacturing-industry-our-investment-in-stansted](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Foutset.ventures%2Fblog%2Fcreating-the-robotic-factory-behind-the-worlds-largest-manufacturing-industry-our-investment-in-stansted) ## Keep reading ### [![](https://outset.ventures/hubfs/Cullbeck.avif) Investment Announcement Building the Pacific’s Green Steel Company: Our Investment in CullBeck](https://outset.ventures/blog/building-the-pacifics-green-steel-company-our-investment-in-cullbeck) ### [![](https://outset.ventures/hs-fs/hubfs/1500x500.jpeg?width=1500&height=500&name=1500x500.jpeg) Investment Announcement Building the Great American Motor Company: Our Investment in Westmag](https://outset.ventures/blog/building-the-great-american-motor-company-our-investment-in-westmag) --- [Founders](https://outset.ventures/founders) [Portfolio](https://outset.ventures/portfolio) [Investors](https://outset.ventures/investors) [Momentum Fund](https://outset.ventures/momentum) [Our Community](https://outset.ventures/community) [Community Code of Conduct](https://outset.ventures/community-code-of-conduct) [Blog](https://outset.ventures/blog) [![OutsetVentures\_Horizontal\_WHT\_RGB](https://outset.ventures/hs-fs/hubfs/OutsetVentures_Horizontal_WHT_RGB.png?width=500&height=130&name=OutsetVentures_Horizontal_WHT_RGB.png "OutsetVentures_Horizontal_WHT_RGB")](https://outset.ventures/) [mailto:mailto:hello@outset.ventures](mailto:mailto:hello@outset.ventures) © 2026 Outset Ventures. 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