Meet the 2024 Dare2Scale Cohort: Concrene
19 founders from 9 companies are joining the 6th edition of Dare2Scale.
Meet Concrene a nanotechnology company which decarbonises concrete using the most advanced nanomaterials. Based on 10 years of work and protected by a portfolio of granted patents, the revolutionary technology is making headway in North America.
What has been your company’s biggest achievement or milestone to date, and what impact has it had on your business?
There are two big achievements which the team is very proud of. Firstly, managed to take a TRL 4 nanotechnology out of the lab and found a practical way to apply it on construction sites, the latter being famous for their conservative and extremely price sensitive nature. Secondly, managed to not only survive as a business, but also take the international IP portfolio through grant thanks to organic revenue. To this day, the company hasn’t raised a seed round yet. These two achievements had two really important impacts on the business – the team learned a lot about the vast construction industry through first-hand experience and meeting with various stakeholders, and secondly, set a strategy and pace for development without having to rush into decisions driven by VC’s exit strategy agendas. As a consequence, the company is now very well equipped with knowledge of the market, and confidence of the strengths of the USP to scale up moving forward.
What’s an unexpected or fun fact about your company or team that most people wouldn’t know?
An unexpected fact is that the technology has reached construction sites whilst the business still doesn’t have an office, doesn’t sell physical products and hasn’t bought a single company phone or a laptop yet. The team has been pushing hard in the last years from their ‘own garages’.
How does your company stay ahead of industry trends and ensure continued innovation?
The company works very closely with the University of Exeter’s Physics & Engineering departments which are at the forefront of global nanotechnology and nanoscience research. Over the last decade, the University has invested time & resources into continuing the research on the groundbreaking innovation of applying nanomaterials in construction. Concrene Ltd is also working closely with recognised Concrete industry associations in the US and Canada, as well as the leading community for graphene commercialisation called The Graphene Council. The company explores new applications of its technology across the vast concrete market by solving challenges driven by the local environmental and project-specific constraints.