Piva Capital Invests in Solidia Technologies
Addressing Climate Urgency by Building a More Sustainable Future
In today’s world, the effects of global warming and climate change are no longer a risk that exists in our future but something we are facing head on with record-breaking temperatures that have led to droughts, floods, destructive wildfires, hurricanes, and melting glaciers. In fact, before the pandemic, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere climbed to a level last seen more than 3 million years ago. As we move towards restarting our economic engine post-pandemic, the effects of global warming will be catastrophic to our planet, if we were to continue with our pre-pandemic approaches.
In order to stabilize climate change, scientists agree that we must reach a net zero economy by 2050. However, this is no easy feat and a significant amount of work is required to reduce the carbon footprint from the most pertinent industries that make up our world today. While much effort has already been placed into more obvious sectors like transportation and agriculture, the concrete industry remains a silent, but deadly, opportunity to address.
The Key Building Block to Sustainability: Tackling Concrete’s Carbon Problem
In its simplest form, concrete is formed through a mixture of cement, water, fine sand and rocks, and is found to be the most widely used construction material on the planet because of its durability and strength. The history of concrete spans over 5,000 years, tracing back to as early as 4,000 BC in the Neolithic age where concrete was first used to build basic forms of shelter. In the present day, concrete is now found everywhere we look from our bridges and dams, skyscrapers, highways, to the homes we live in and the ground we walk on.
Although this type of material is used to construct mostly every modern structure in the world, its supply chain has detrimental consequences to the environment. According to the New York Times, if concrete were a country, it would rank third in emissions behind China and tThe United States. The production of cement, the binder that holds concrete together, gives off a total of 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions per year. On top of that, 3 trillion liters of fresh water are used annually in order to produce the material. With a dramatic increase of urbanization all over the world, the global demand for concrete will only continue to rise exponentially — causing both a significant environmental strain on the world and an imminent risk to our planet.
At Piva, our mission is to identify, invest and support visionary entrepreneurs and companies that are solving the world’s most critical problems in the industrials and energy space. As the global economy looks to reconfigure its structure to create equitable value whilst addressing our climate crisis, we see a huge opportunity in new sustainable solutions that can not only mitigate the damage concrete inflicts on the environment but also take actionable progress in achieving the world’s net zero commitment.
With that said, today we are thrilled to announce that we have invested in Solidia Technologies, a cement and concrete technology company with award-winning, patented scientific systems that makes it easy and profitable to use CO2 to create greener and better building, construction and industrial products.
Enter Solidia: Creating Superior Building Materials in A Digital Era of Sustainability
At its core, Solidia’s proprietary technology helps manufacture concrete that is superior in quality whilst reducing its unit economics. It is ~5% more dense, which makes it highly resistant to harsh weather conditions and enables it to remain vibrant all year round. Moreover, with a wider and more vibrant color palette, the products are more aesthetically pleasing to consumers than traditional concrete. While you can typically see white scarring or efflorescence found in today’s hardened concrete that usually takes a few years or seasons to dissipate, Solidia’s concrete never scars and is smooth in texture.
Furthermore, Solidia’s patented technologies reduce the carbon footprint of cement and concrete production by up to 70% compared to that of traditional cement and concrete. The company is turning an environmental approach into a smart business model through cost effective solutions that are easy to scale. Solidia provides two core technologies including a cement manufacturing technology, which can be produced in traditional cement kilns using less energy, and a sustainable concrete curing technology, which cures concrete with CO2 instead of water. It also leverages artificial intelligence into the curing process, which not only modernizes an antiquated process, but helps reduce waste, improve quality control and system optimization.
Solidia addresses concrete’s massive carbon challenge from both ends of the spectrum, reducing CO2 emissions in the cement production process, as well as utilizing and consuming CO2 permanently and capturing it inside the concrete. At full market conversion, Solidia can save three trillion liters of fresh water, reduce energy consumption equal to 260 million barrels of oil (or 67 million tonnes of coal), and eliminate 100 million tonnes of concrete landfill waste every year.
With the closing of this new financing round, we are also excited to welcome Bryan Kalbfleisch, a seasoned company builder whose most recent experience was serving as the President of the Texas Region for Summit Materials. We are confident that Bryan will bring his decades long experience in the cement and concrete industry to steer Solidia through this exciting growth phase.
“Solidia is moving cement and concrete into their next generation with higher-performing materials that are better for industry, people, and the planet,” said Solidia CEO Bryan Kalbfleisch.
“Having devoted my career to this industry, I am excited to help build a new legacy for it with the support of some of the world’s most committed leaders in advancing sustainable innovation, like Piva Capital.”
With this investment, we are joining an impressive group of new and existing investors all aimed to address this climate crisis urgently through technology innovation including Imperative Science Ventures Fund, Zero Carbon Partners, Foris Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and more. Solidia’s potential is infinite and we look forward to working together with Bryan and his team on their next chapter.
The timing of this new financing round could not be more apt. On April 22, President Biden announced a new target for the United States to achieve between 50% — 52% reduction from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution in 2030, signaling a great resolve to act now. Combined with The American Jobs Plan, the administration is reaffirming its commitment towards building a greener and sustainable future for all by emphasizing the importance of climate and sustainable technology with programs such as ten year extensions of the production and investment tax credits, new tax credits for storage and decarbonization of heavy industry, an expanded carbon capture and utilization tax credit with a refundability mechanism, $46 billion in government procurement of domestically-sourced clean energy products, $111 billion for water infrastructure upgrades and recycling programs, among many others.
We believe that innovative companies like Solidia Technologies are poised to address this climate emergency whilst creating new and sustainable economic opportunities for all and we are confident that Bryan will lead Solidia Technologies to a greater height.
