Turning buildings into carbon sinks – Why we invested in ecoLocked

After announcing our investment in ecoLocked last week, we want to shed some light on why we are excited about the company and how it fits our strategy of decarbonizing the industrial sector.

Why this matters

There is now widespread scientific and growing political consensus that, to limit global warming to a range of 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrialization levels, mankind will not only need to reduce CO2 and other GHG emissions faster than today but will also need to draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it safely.

Different carbon removal technologies and solutions currently exist. Out of these, biochar - the output of pyrolyzing organic materials, usually biomass residues - has proven to be among the cheapest and most scalable. Its admixture to building materials, moreover, provides a way to both reduce the carbon content of real estate developments and to improve the properties of the materials themselves.

The construction industry is hence an ideal offtake target for biochar, since (i) it allows for fast scaling - volumes produced are huge, concrete being the second most abundant product on earth after water – (ii) it is in heavy need to decarbonize - the cement industry currently represents 8% of global emissions – and on the hunt for a wide pool of complementary decarbonization solutions; and (iii) it favors well “plug-in” and very low CapEx solutions such as biochar, which require little to no disruption to current operations.

Why ecoLocked

ecoLocked is a carbon storage and utilization startup, focused on developing carbon-neutral building materials through the admixture of biochar produced from waste biomass. In the interesting and strongly growing decarbonization opportunity described above, ecoLocked is providing the very relevant function of linking the production of different biochar producers to a large number of building materials and building products companies.

The impact can be huge: the company is poised to remove more than 5Mt of CO2 per year by 2030 and a cumulative 1Gt by 2040.

ecoLocked was founded in 2021 by CEO Dr. Mario Schmitt and CTO Micheil Gordon , who were joined in 2022 by CCO Stefanie Gerhart . It is headquartered in Berlin, and is currently strong of 18 employees from 13 nationalities, with diverse expertise in sustainability, material science, construction, and business. They are in the process of installing a demo plant in Berlin-Bernau to serve their growing base of customers: multiple concrete producers in the DACH region and the Netherlands have in fact already embedded ecoLocked′s products into their portfolio.

Since biochar from a single producer often cannot provide the right mix of properties, ecoLocked has built its own industrial process of testing, grinding, sieving, and mixing which allows them to produce exactly the right mixture needed for usage in building materials. The core of ecoLocked technology and the company's main differentiator is its data-driven product development platform, allowing them to make use of feedstock variability to create tailored products for specific building material segments and ensure consistent performance across diverse locations.

I firmly believe that the future of carbon removal lies in developing products that not only store captured carbon for long periods, but also become valuable resources for local industries, such as the construction sector.

Dr. Mario Schmitt, CEO of ecoLocked

Going forward

We have co-led a €4 million seed round together with climate tech investor Climentum Capital and with the participation of existing investors Counteract , Startup Family Office , ?imsa Building Solutions , and VOYAGERS.io .

The company will use the funds to continue developing its product portfolio – including several other biochar-based concrete solutions and novel admixtures targeting other building materials (insulating materials, plasters, bricks, tiles, asphalt, …) - increase the market adoption of its products and expand its manufacturing capacity.

For more information?about ecoLocked check out their website: www.ecolocked.com

Feel free to reach out to us Ines Kolmsee , Lorenzo De Angeli or Eduardo Martinez Mari?o if you are interested to learn more about Matterwave Ventures or you would like to get in touch with the ecoLocked team.