BeNewtral, a start-up founded by Nicolò Verardi and Riccardo Frezzato, operating in the cleantech sector with a focus on the production of innovative materials for the construction industry of the future, announces that it has completed a capital increase worth €7 million, bringing the total amount raised to €11 million.
The transaction was finalised just three months after the official market launch of ReBind, a material that is completely different from cement but can fully replace it in concrete production, guaranteeing the same performance. With a low environmental impact and developed on the basis of BeNewtral’s proprietary technology, ReBind represents a new generation solution for the construction sector, thanks to low energy consumption chemical and physical processes that reduce emissions by up to 90% compared to Portland cement, without compromising on durability and strength.
The round is led by CDP Venture Capital, through the Infratech segment of its Corporate Partners I fund. It is supported by long-standing partners who have backed BeNewtral since the beginning: NovaCapital, Eureka! Venture and Tech4Planet, the national technology transfer hub for environmental sustainability promoted by CDP Venture Capital itself, together with a group of private investors, including Edoardo Vernazza, entrepreneur and owner of San Colombano Costruzioni and president of ANCE Giovani, and other new angel investors from the industrial, consulting and management worlds, reflecting the growing interest in the technology developed by the company.
The new capital will be used to strengthen research activities, as well as to increase production capacity and develop commercial activities.
On the production front, BeNewtral, in conjunction with the fundraising, has acquired a plant in Pavia, which will be the first pilot plant on the basis of which to build subsequent ones and which will bring production capacity to over 25,000 tonnes per year, enabling the company to become the leading producer of alternative binders in Italy.
In terms of research and development, BeNewtral will invest in the creation of a new-generation laboratory for the development of alternative binders, with the aim of becoming a scientific and industrial benchmark, thanks to strategic partnerships with Italian universities and foreign research centres, and a dedicated team of around 20 researchers, engineers and technologists.
To support its commercial activities, BeNewtral will invest in developing a structured network of partnerships with leading concrete manufacturers, which represent the primary natural market for the adoption of alternative binders. The aim is to gradually integrate ReBind into existing production chains, facilitating its use in existing industrial processes and accelerating the spread of the material through established operators in the sector.
Verardi and Frezzato (pictured) said in a statement: “This transaction represents a new step for BeNewtral in its journey to bring benefits to everyone. Concrete is everywhere and its environmental impact is a collective challenge: that’s why the closing of this round is not only a success for us, but also confirmation that investors, institutions and the construction industry perceive the need for change. Now that we have completed product development and created a scalable growth model, with the confidence of our new and existing investors, we will be able to accelerate our growth plan and expand our areas of application. This will enable us to consolidate our technological leadership, while maintaining a focus on minimising environmental impact and sustainability in the building materials sector. We are working to offer a new production paradigm, a model that focuses on affordability for customers and a positive environmental and social impact. In a sector where raw materials are increasingly scarce and dominated by energy-intensive and emission-heavy processes, currently based mainly on quarrying and high-temperature production, we are introducing equivalent products derived from widely available waste materials, using very low-emission production processes and minimising the consumption of precious new resources such as minerals and water.
Alessandro Scortecci, Director of Direct Investments at CDP Venture Capital, adds: “BeNewtral has established itself among the international leaders committed to defining a new sustainable vision for a strategic and essential material such as cement. We are particularly pleased to support the strengthening of the company’s production base through the creation of a new industrial hub and the development of strategic partnerships with qualified operators in the sector, which will promote the adoption of BeNewtral’s solution.”
“Reinvesting in BeNewtral means confirming our confidence in a technology that promises not only ‘decarbonisation’, but also a new industrial logic: the same performance as cement, drastically lower costs and energy consumption, and real scalability. Today, we see a team that is not conducting research and development for its own sake: it is building production, supply chain and go-to-market together,” conclude Carlo Germano Ravina of Nova Capital and Stefano Peroncini of Eureka! Venture.
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