Material Evolution secures investment to help transform the foundation industries
by Startacus Admin
Material Evolution raises $3.4m to support further development of its innovative and sustainable alternative to concrete
Way back at the end of last year, we highlighted some Northern Irish startups that we thought would be ones to watch during 2021. So we were delighted with the news this week that one of those startups, namely Material Evolution has just announced that it has raised $3.4M via $1.7M in seed investment and $1.7M in grant funding. The round was led by London-based investors Playfair Capital, with participation from At One Ventures, The Heritage Group and SkyRiver Ventures, as well as a number of angels from the construction industry. The grant award came from Innovate UK via their Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge.
Founded in 2017 by Dr Elizabeth Gilligan, Material Evolution uses patented geopolymer technology and proprietary algorithms to create the most sustainable materials on the planet.
The company is currently focussed on creating a sustainable alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), through the development of geopolymers. So far, they have developed a product that is made from 95% industrial waste which is stronger, more durable, and reduces the carbon consumption of concrete by 85%, when compared to equivalent products which use OPC. Utilising AI/ML, their algorithms allow them to keep material consistency and repeatability in every batch.
The investment will allow Material Evolution to build out their world-leading materials science team, develop future products and set up batch production. This expansion will meet the construction market’s need for sustainable building materials. There is currently a significant waitlist for the material, with a number of customers in their pipeline due to receive the first 100,000 tonnes of their material during year one of production.
Dr Elizabeth Gilligan, CEO of Material Evolution, says, “Concrete is the second most used material in the world after water, and cement equates to about 8% of our global CO2 emissions. We need to build much more sustainably if we are to meet our ambitious NetZero goals.”.
“We were delighted to have a heavily oversubscribed funding round and investors on board who share our vision and our passion to decarbonise the foundation industries through advanced materials. We have also received funding from Innovate UK who are fully dedicated to transforming the foundation industries in order to meet NetZero by 2030.”.
Material Evolution are evidently at the forefront of hugely important innovation - exciting times lie ahead!
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Published on: 23rd November 2021
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