Cement is behind roughly eight percent of global emissions, more than aviation. Most of that comes from heating limestone to very high temperatures. Northwind Materials makes a replacement from steel-industry waste that needs far less energy to produce.

We first met Sanne de Vries and her co-founders in a converted warehouse outside Rotterdam, where they were pouring test slabs by hand. Two years later, their material is in real buildings.

Why we invested

The team has already poured their material on working building sites, and the first public tenders are in sight. That is rare for a company this young, and it tells us the product works outside the lab.

Construction is a conservative industry for good reasons. Buildings have to stand for decades. Northwind has spent its first years on testing and certification rather than marketing, which is exactly the right order.

What comes next

We are leading the seed round alongside two climate funds, and Linh joins the board. The money will fund a larger production line and the certifications needed for public buildings in Germany and Belgium.

We are proud to back the team, and we expect this to be a long partnership.