Start of Global Start-Up Challenge in Drive Towards Net Zero Concrete

Start-ups from around the world can play an important role in helping an essential global industry in its efforts to cut CO₂ emissions and help solve the climate challenge. This is why the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and its member companies across the world are inviting them to apply for the Innovandi Open Challenge 2025.

The Innovandi Open Challenge, now in its 4^th year, is the GCCA’s accelerator that partners start-ups with GCCA members to develop technologies and innovations to help the cement and concrete sector decarbonise.

The Open Challenge 4 is looking for start-ups from around the world working on next generation materials towards net zero concrete, e.g. low-carbon admixtures, supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), activators, or binders.

Innovation can help further unlock the delivery of low carbon concrete by reducing the amount of clinker used – the carbon intensive element of cement – and by using the most cutting-edge materials as part of the concrete mix to lower CO₂ emissions.

Thomas Guillot, Chief Executive of the GCCA, said: “Advanced production methods which are decarbonising our sector are already being used in cement and concrete production in many parts of the world. Through the Innovandi Open Challenge, start-ups can bring in even newer ideas and further accelerate our industry’s push.

“We’re calling on the best and the brightest from around the world to join us in the urgent fight to limit global warming and help towards delivering net zero concrete. If you are a start-up from anywhere in the world with an innovative idea or technology, then we want to hear from you.”

Concrete is the second most used substance on earth after water and is a vital part of our modern infrastructure.

The global challenge matches start-up companies with some of the world’s leading cement and concrete manufacturers, who operate in almost every country across the world, to work on initiatives to cut emissions and pioneer environmental change across the industry.  

Start-ups can find more information and apply to take part in the Innovandi Open Challenge by going to the GCCA Open Challenge 4 webpage: Innovandi Open Challenge 4 : GCCA

/ Ends 

Quotes from previous Open Challenge start-ups:

Tim Sperry, Co-Founder and CEO, Carbon Limit “We saw it as a great opportunity to connect and network with and commercialise our technology with the consortium members from the GCCA, here in the States and around the world.

It’s been a great experience so far as we’ve learned a lot through this challenge, and we’ve also been connected with some of the best consortium members that are part of the GCCA that we look forward to testing and hopefully commercialising with now and in the near future.

Hagen Rockmann, Chief Commercial Officer, UniSieve “Experience with Innovandi Open Challenge so far has been great.

We have had loads of discussions with customers from the concrete and cement industry about our molecular seeding membranes and what they can do for points towards carbon capture to decarbonise concrete and cement industry production.”

Sravanth Gadikota, CEO, Carbon To Stone “Joining the Innovandi the Open Challenge provided us unique access to experts from global cement companies that face similar challenges to achieve their net zero goalsdefined in the GCCA roadmap.

We have already learned an incredible amount about how our solution could be implemented globally at a large scale.”

Shane Johnson, CEO, CarbonQuest “What’s next for our company?

We’re working with a number of different industrial segments to demonstrate how onsite, modular based carbon capture can scale to immediately help avoid the direct emission sources and make a big impact in the battle for climate change.”

Nigel Campbell, Chief Commercial Officer, Captivate Technology “We joined the Innovandi Challenge because we felt our technology was a great fit with the cement industry and the character and the magnitude of the associated emissions.

We thought it would be a very effective way to meet the world’s leading cement to concrete companies and explore the opportunity to deploy our technology and accelerate its application.”

Omid Saghafifar, Co-Founder and CEO, Remedium “Joining the Innovandi Open Challenge was a great opportunity for us to present our solution, to cement industries and develop partnership with them to move towards a greener future.”

Nic Renard, VP Carbon Solutions, Ardent “With tens of thousands of products already in the field today.We at Ardent know that close collaboration with the end customer that will operatethe assets is very important.

In order to develop an ideal solution, we saw Innovandi Open Challenge as an unparalleled opportunity to connect with the top cement players across the world and get those face-to-face conversations that will enable us to develop a solution that is perfectly suited to those specific customers.”