22 November 2021 – London, UK: Today, Material Evolution announces it has raised $3.4M, comprising of $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 Groupand SkyRiver Ventures, as well as a number of angels from the construction industry including The Applebridge Construction Group and Milestone Construction. The grant award came from Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, and 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 CO2emissions. 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.”.
Jeevan Sunner, Investor at Playfair Capital adds: “We are at the tipping point of how we choose to address climate change and how those decisions will change how the next generation will be able to inhabit the planet.”
“Material Evolution is changing an industry through data and science as we sit on the next industrial revolution. Cement emissions are a big contributor in the climate crisis, but through Material Evolution’s approach, we can continue to use concrete without it costing our planet.”
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