We’re thrilled to announce our recent investment in Cambridge-based bio-concrete start-up BioZeroc Ltd.
We use more concrete than any other man-made substance in the world. It’s the backbone of our infrastructure, our houses and much more. Without it, much of the modern world (nor indeed the future world) would exist. Concrete is made by mixing cement and aggregate materials such as rocks and sand. Unfortunately the process for making cement releases a huge amount of CO2, both from the chemical reaction itself and from the generation of intense heat required to make it happen. As a result, concrete is responsible for 8% of global annual CO2 emissions.
The industry is exploring many different options to reduce emissions, including improving furnace efficiency and using cleaner fuels as well as different binding materials, but few have the possibility of reducing emissions to zero. In fact, we expect the growth in usage of concrete to outpace the trajectory of current improvements and for emissions from concrete to continue to rise over the coming years.
There are a few ambitious companies looking at completely new processes to make concrete with truly zero emissions. This is exactly what BioZeroc hope to achieve, and indeed, if they are successful in sourcing feedstock chemicals from agricultural waste, the resulting concrete can enable negative emissions.
“BioZeroc’s insight is rooted in nature, where microorganisms create extremely strong structures like coral. We use the power of cutting-edge biotechnology to optimise and scale up a similar bacterial process that binds together the aggregate, replacing the need for conventional cement altogether,” says co-founder Liv Andersson, architect & building physics engineer and BioZeroc’s CEO.
Liv met John Somerville, co-founder and CTO, at Cambridge-based venture builder Carbon13 and we are thrilled to be investing alongside their seed fund and several angels in this round. The total value of the round is over £350k. ZCC’s Pippa Gawley will be taking a board seat at BioZeroc alongside the two founders.
Nicky Dee, Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer of Carbon13 says “Carbon13 was established to build and support ambitious ventures capable of making a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. When Liv and John came together to form BioZeroc we immediately recognised how transformational their bioconcrete could be to delivering net zero and not just incremental change. We are delighted this round of funding comes from Pippa who can support their next phase of growth.”
Welcome BioZeroc to the Zero Carbon Capital family!