LEKO Labs, the Luxembourg based carbon-negative construction company, has just picked up around €18.4 million in an oversubscribed funding round.
The investment is led by urban sustainability-focused fund 2150 with participation from the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Tencent, AMAVI, Rise PropTech Fund, Extantia and Freigeist. Alongside the funding, Former Lilium CCO Dr. Remo Gerber will join as CEO, with Francois Cordier moving from CEO to CTO – allowing him to focus on furthering the tech.
Founded in 2017 by Francois Cordier, LEKO Labs’ vision is to accelerate the adoption of sustainable building materials in the built environment. The startup has developed a solution using sustainably-sourced wood-based materials to replace up to 75% of concrete and steel used in a single building, dramatically reducing carbon footprint during construction. In incorporating engineered wood and a fully circular manufacturing process, the system provides not only a sustainable approach to building but also superior insulation properties with thinner walls. This enables up to 10% more floor space for a given building – a game-changer in the construction space.
LEKO Labs’s software platform calculates and optimises thermal, acoustic and static properties of the buildings, resolving moisture and noise problems typically associated with wooden buildings. Further, the robotics-driven approach means that buildings can be manufactured faster, and with greater quality. This of course benefits construction companies and workers.
Christian Hernandez, co-founder at 2150 said: “The LEKO Labs team is on an important mission to help decarbonise the built environment with a fundamentally different and scalable approach. We are delighted to partner with LEKO Labs bringing our climate tech and strong European property investor basis to play and help adoption of a groundbreaking new approach.”
The technology can be used for a variety of buildings – homes, commercial sites, even buildings up to 100m tall. The wall system is also highly insulating and can reduce the heating and cooling needs of a building by up to 87% compared to today’s standards – a big step in making buildings carbon neutral over their entire lifetime. It means future residents can sleep in peace knowing they built sustainable and corporate organisations have a real solution to help achieve their Net Zero goals.
Dr. Remo Gerber, CEO at LEKO LABS, said: “We are making a difference today, each of our walls saves several tons of CO2 here and now. By scaling up our solution with automotive robotics we will achieve global impact in the coming years.”
The sustainable building sector is now starting to gain more and more attention from European VC’s. Whilst it’s estimated that 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from housing, it’s high time that innovation is funded to benefit our planet. LEKO’s solution is paving the way in this regard.
The LEKO team has now grown to over 30 employees in Luxembourg, and the company recently opened a subsidiary in Switzerland with an office due to open soon in London. Whilst they are currently focused in the Benelux region, this new funding will enable LEKO to scale its software and robotics construction solution throughout Europe – with Germany, the Nordics, and the UK as key target markets.
Francois Cordier, CTO and Founder at LEKO LABS commented: “I’m delighted to welcome Remo as our new CEO and our new investors to help deliver our vision towards a more sustainable building sector. Together we have a strong shot on the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions in 2040 by 1% using the LEKO Labs advanced building technology. His experience in scaling companies and capitalising them will be instrumental for the success of the company.”
via https://www.AiUpNow.com
February 22, 2022 at 04:00AM by contact@bcurdy.com, Khareem Sudlow
