In Oxford, North Carolina, a young company called Plantd is taking direct aim at one of the least glamorous but most essential parts of a house: the panels that wrap the frame. The startup says it can swap out traditional wood-based oriented strand board for panels pressed from super fast-growing perennial grasses, and it already has real money and real customers betting it is right.
The company reports raising roughly $47.5 million, locking in a multiyear buyer for its panels, and buying farmland so it can scale up the grass supply it needs to feed its factories.
Big builder bets on grass
D.R. Horton, the nation's largest homebuilder, has signed on for a multiyear purchase of 10 million Plantd panels, enough material for roughly 90,000 homes. As reported by Fast Company, D.R. Horton has already tried the product on a roof in Durham and expects to roll it out more widely as Plantd ramps up production.
How the panels work
Plantd manufactures four-by-eight panels by compressing cuttings of a cloned, fast-growing grass into resin-bonded sheets that match OSB dimensions, according to Axios Raleigh. Builders and independent testers say the grass panels hold their strength when soaked and are less prone to warping, traits that could make life easier on chaotic job sites that now rely on wood-based sheathing, Pro Builder reports.
Scaling up: land, factories and farmers
Standing up a new building material is not just a factory problem, it is a farming problem. Plantd lists roughly $47.5 million in capital to fuel its growth and says it has lined up partnerships to plant hundreds of acres of perennial grass. The company celebrated hitting a 250-acre milestone in a press release on Newswire.
At the same time, the N.C. Department of Agriculture has spotlighted research grants that will use switchgrass grown in North Carolina, signaling interest from universities and the state in how the crop might feed into industry and even battery-materials research, according to the N.C. Department of Agriculture.
Why builders are paying attention
For big builders, the hook is straightforward: a panel that installs like OSB, handles wet weather more gracefully, and pulls carbon from the atmosphere is the kind of sales pitch that practically writes itself. Industry coverage and early builder partners point to stable pricing, performance in the field, and hands-on trials in model homes as core reasons major homebuilders are kicking the tires on a switch, Pro Builder found.
“I want to take over the entire lumber industry,” Plantd co-founder Nathan Silvernail told Axios Raleigh. The company says its roadmap reaches beyond sheathing panels to include furniture products and eventual international expansion. Axios also reports that a 70-home development built entirely with Plantd materials is underway, and the next big test will be whether the startup can expand production and secure certifications quickly enough to keep up with demand from builders of D.R. Horton’s size.
