alcemy closes Series A funding round: 10 million for decarbonisation of the cement and concrete industry
Berlin, 09/09/2022 – More sustainable concrete and cement as a standard in construction: The Berlin-based startup alcemy received 10 million Euros for its Series A funding. The new investors include prestigious climate tech funds and, for the first time, industry leaders from construction and real estate. The financing round is led by Galvanize Climate Solutions, a climate focused investment platform founded by Katie Hall and Tom Steyer. Other investors include AENU, the impact fund of Ferry and Fabian Heilemann brothers, which supports ClimateTech companies and social enterprises.
In addition, construction and real estate investors such as BitStone Capital, MOMENI Ventures and E.R. Capital Holding are contributing to pushing the adaptation of more sustainable concrete in the industry. The funding round is completed by additional investments from Tobias Nendel as well as the Flixbus founders and all existing investors such as EF, La Famiglia, Firstminute Capital and LocalGlobe.
The capital will be used to facilitate the growth of the software development team for machine learning, to establish a sales team, and to further expand.
Securing the future of the cement and concrete industry with technology
The cement and concrete industry is one of the most impactful carbon producers in the world – cement, the most important ingredient in concrete, is responsible for about eight percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. As the demand for concrete as a construction material will continue to increase, the industry faces several challenges. It needs to decarbonise and comply with regulatory requirements, such as the EU Emissions Trading System for cement, as well as provide sustainable alternatives for builders and constructors to use.
With its products, the alcemy team specifically addresses the two major pain points of facing the industry: Reducing the high CO2 emissions and the enormous consumption of primary resources through the extraction of sand and gravel.
“We founded alcemy with the vision that more sustainable types of cement and concrete are no longer just theoretical considerations, but can be used in practice — quickly and on a mass scale. But to achieve this goal, close and continuous quality monitoring of these more sensitive types of concrete and cement is needed, which we as a company deliver with our software,”
says Leopold Spenner, co-founder and CEO of alcemy.
During the production, the alcemy solution saves up to 50 percent CO2 compared to the predecessor. In 2021 alone, the startup, together with customers, reduced 80,000 tonnes of CO2. At the same time, alcemy’s software enables companies to produce more concrete using recycled ingredients precisely and safely. Numerous customers already rely on the solution, including some of Germany’s renowned industry giants.
“I have known the concrete and cement industry since childhood, as my family is already the third generation to run concrete and cement plants. It is great to see that there is so much interest in this important topic and in our solution. We are pleased that we convinced numerous customers, as well as our investors to support us. With this successful funding round, we not only built a foundation for the future of our company, but also for our planet.
About alcemy:
The Berlin-based startup alcemy was founded in 2018 by Leopold Spenner and Dr Robert Meyer. Their vision: to bring the concrete and cement industry into a new, digital and greener age. To fulfill this vision, the young company uses machine learning and control technology to predict the quality properties of cement and concrete. Through robust data and smart algorithms, alcemy offers elevant insights along the entire value chain in real time – from the cradle at cement grinding to the processing of the concrete on the construction site. In this way, the handcrafted natural product becomes a data-based high-tech product. With alcemy’s solution, companies in the most emission-intensive industry benefit from higher quality, lower production costs and massive CO2 savings.