Investors Still Pouring Cash Into Clean Concrete

Startup investors keep pouring capital into clean concrete.

Over the past few years, companies in the space have raised more than $750 million in venture funding. And investment continues to flow, with Silicon Valley-based Fortera, a developer of low-carbon cement technology, closing this week on the year’s biggest round.

Five-year-old Fortera announced Wednesday that it secured an $85 million Series C with backing from repeat investors Khosla Ventures and Temasek. It will use the money to incorporate its technology into existing cement manufacturing plants, with the goal of producing a green cement with 70% less carbon dioxide than ordinary varieties.

Fortera is one of the more heavily funded of a long list of clean cement and concrete startups. To illustrate, we used Crunchbase data to aggregate a sample of 28 companies that have raised seed for venture funding, with most of the capital coming in 2023 and 2024.

Startups skew early stage

Notably, startups on our list skew pretty early stage. For the vast majority, their last funding round was at seed or Series A.

Only one raised a Series B as its latest round – Oakland, California-based Mighty Buildings. The 3D-printed homebuilding startup aims to make construction carbon negative, in part by using bio-based and recyclable materials in lieu of traditional concrete.

Fortera, meanwhile, was the only one to get to Series C or later. As more companies on the list mature beyond early stage, however, we can expect funding rounds to get both later-stage and larger.

How VCs learned to love bricks and mortar

While cement — the literal mortar in “bricks and mortar” — may seem an unlikely fit for the digital technology-promoting venture capital industry, the  space does possess some of the attributes investors seek.

For one, it’s a huge market. It’s commonly stated that cement is the most used material on the planet after water. 1 Per the Global Cement and Concrete Association, it’s the most used of all man-made materials.

Market research typically pegs the market for global ready-mix concrete (which is made with cement) at over $800 billion annually. Forecasters call for continued growth as well, as humanity continues its mission to cover more of the planet with concrete.

Given the material’s ubiquity and problematic environmental footprint, it’s also not hard to see the appeal in greener alternatives. Researchers say the cement industry is a key driver of climate change and currently responsible for 5% to 8% of global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions every year.

Construction, overall, is one of the major producers of greenhouse gases. Currently, industry sources estimate that existing and under-construction buildings generate roughly 40% of annual global CO₂ emissions, with much of that from building materials.

As the green concrete startup pipeline matures, the hope is that builders will be able to decrease their carbon footprint, while delivering investors some big exits to boot.

Related Crunchbase Pro list:

• Clean Concrete-Related Funded Companies

Illustration: Dom Guzman