The Silicon Valley-based materials company has developed a process to capture CO2 emissions from carbon-intensive industrial cement production and convert it into a low-carbon cement that’s as strong and durable as traditional cement.
The process was honed over nearly two decades of research and development and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. Capital-intensive and low-margin cement made the economics difficult to crack, Fortera’s Ryan Gilliam told ImpactAlpha. “To do that and be cost competitive and not be reliant on a green premium, that’s really the difficulty of this space.”
Growing demand
Fortera partnered with cement plants and manufacturers, using their infrastructure to produce its cement in a way that’s economically competitive. A new commercial plant in Redding, Calif., will enable the company to capture 6,600 tons of CO2 and produce 15,000 tons of low-carbon cement each year, as global demand surges for the material.
In the US, federal and state procurement is driving demand for green cement. The Biden-Harris administration earlier this year allocated $1.5 billion for low-carbon cement projects.
Low-carbon tech
Fortera’s Series C financing round, backed by Temasek, Khosla Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and other investors, will help it reach “true commercial scale,” Gilliam said.
“When we closed our Series B round, it was all about getting the first commercial plant online and ready,” he added. “Now that we have that first plant up and running, and we have a product we’re getting to customers, the Series C is the catapult to put us into building out those pipelines of commercial plants.”
Fortera raised its $30 million Series B round three years ago.
