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Today we’re learning about Material Evolution’s latest fundraise as they decarbonise the construction industry. Let’s get in to it.

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A Concrete Future

How do you start a concrete race? “Ready… Set…”

Concrete is key to construction around the world because of its simple, and relatively cheap production process. That said, it requires tonnes of energy and as a result is massively emitting.

In fact, if concrete were a country, it would be the third biggest emitter globally representing 8% of all emissions! Dang.

This week, Material Evolution (ME), a UK-based startup focused on tackling this problem by decarbonising the cement industry announced a $19M fundraise.

Cementing EM’s Strategy

ME say their concrete production has an 85% lower carbon footprint than traditional methods!

Traditionally, concrete is made in kilns that are heated to extremely high temperatures (and thus require energy). Instead, ME uses Alkali-fusion to produce cement at much lower temperatures using a number of industrial waste materials as inputs.

While there’s been many examples of exciting new technologies, ME stands out as it’s already being used at scale by SigmaRoc which is a large materials company and is also a strategic investor in this latest round.

On top of this, EM boasts that they’ve been operating at capacity since they launched and already have take-off agreements for 35,000 tonnes in the upcoming year. In other words, they’ve already sold the majority of their production in the coming twelve months. Climate capitalist flex.

In their press-release, the founders stressed that one material can’t be the only solution and we happen to agree. It’s great to see alternative building materials hitting scale but we’ll need to keep these coming - it’s a hard problem to solve after all…

‘til next time.

The Strawman