Fortera announced it has raised $30 million in Series B round co-led by Temasek and Khosla Ventures.
Fortera is a Silicon Valley-based Materials Technology Company founded in May 2019, that has created a process that economically converts CO2 into a cement ready for use anywhere Ordinary Portland Cement is used.
“The Series B round will help accelerate the global deployment of our technology and fund the early phases of product adoption. Fortera dramatically lowers a cement plant’s carbon footprint and is seamless to integrate. Our process is scalable, competitive economically with traditional cement, and offers a realistic pathway to zero CO2 emissions,” said Dr. Ryan Gilliam, CEO and Co-Founder of Fortera.
The Venture Capital community has been seeking opportunities that not only have a positive impact on the environment but are also built on good business principles.
“We have evaluated a wealth of technologies in this space. The majority offer incremental impact or are relevant in only niche markets such as precast concrete or are simply not economical.” said Vinod Khosla, of Khosla Ventures. “Fortera is able to make large reductions in carbon emissions while being competitive in cost and targeting the larger cement market. Almost none of the competitors we have seen in this space are able to achieve this trajectory.”
As a mission-driven materials technology company, Fortera is using its novel carbon mineralization process to reduce CO2 emissions in the cement industry where emissions have been difficult to address. “The current process for making the building blocks around us requires the chemical release of CO2 as part of the production process. In nature it is just the opposite, calcium and CO2 are combined to make up the building blocks relied on by coral reefs and shells to make their hard materials,” said Dr. Ryan Gilliam.
Fortera is in the process of building its first commercial plant in Redding, CA where it will manufacture its first-generation product, a low CO2 supplementary cementitious material, available for sale Q2 2022.
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