Revolution Precrafted’s dream turns execution nightmare

The first unicorn in the Philippines, Revolution Precrafted has built a lot of hype around luxury prefabricated homes. But real-estate celebrity Robbie Antonio's startup is built on shaky foundations

To date, there’s little evidence that Revolution Precrafted has delivered a single prefab home to the market, said ex and current employees

Some buyers of one project have slammed the company for building what appear to be traditional homes instead of prefab, as it initially advertised

With cracks in its business model beginning to show, it seems Revolution had presented investors wildly optimistic financial forecasts in a bid to hit unicorn status

It doesn’t help that its founder has started pursuing other business ideas, supposedly taking his focus away from Revolution

Seventy kilometres north of the Philippines capital of Manila, situated in the midst of The Lakeshore—a 250-hectare residential sprawl—lies Flavorscapes. Billed as the “world’s first livable food park”, the completed development will include multiple food-oriented museums, a beer garden, and a floating restaurant. None of this, though, is what makes Flavorscapes special. What makes the development truly unique is that it’s one of the maiden showcase projects of Revolution Precrafted, the Philippines’ first and only unicorn—a startup that’s worth $1 billion or more.

Under a deal with The Lakeshore’s developer, Revolution Precrafted will build Flavorscapes, consisting of more than 7,000 prefabricated homes, in addition to the posh amenities mentioned above.

AUTHOR

Jum Balea

Jum is a Manila-based reporter for The Ken, where she covers startups and business across Southeast Asia, with a focus on the Philippines. She previously was editor for Tech In Asia, and business editor for Philippine media companies Rappler and ABS-CBN.

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