What have a digital marketplace for excavation materials, a carbon dioxide recovery system and a safety device on hard hats got in common?

The answer is that all three are part-owned by Cemex Ventures, the venture capital arm of Mexican building materials manufacturer Cemex, which over the past eight years has become one of the world鈥檚 most high-profile investors in construction tech start-ups.

Mateo Zimmermann, investment manager at Cemex Ventures. Photo: Cemex Ventures

鈥淲e鈥檙e very optimistic,鈥� says Mateo Zimmermann, investment manager at Cemex Ventures. 鈥淭here鈥檚 still a big gap in terms of technology. It鈥檚 improving. I鈥檝e seen amazing things happening in construction and in terms of technology adoption but there鈥檚 still a lot of room to grow. We see the pace of advancement is getting higher and higher every year. There鈥檚 such a massive opportunity to improve our vital industry.鈥�

Zimmermann flicks through a long list of the sorts of innovations Cemex is looking at which includes online marketplaces, robotics, 3D printing, green hydrogen production, real-time site data analysis, exoskeletons, carbon mineralisation, goods delivery and scheduling software, last mile delivery platforms, technology to monitor the concrete hardening process, solar fuels and technology which turns solid waste into synthetic gas.

In fact, Cemex Ventures is one of a growing number of construction-focused VCs and corporate innovation labs which are focused on working out the technology likely to be underpinning the construction industry over the next 10 or 20 years and helping to bring it into existence.

They are betting not only that tech startups can improve operations in construction as they have done in other industries such as healthcare, finance and retail but also that by finding the innovations likely to revolutionise the industry in the coming years, they can help to shape it.

鈥淥ur main rivals are the lack of adoption in construction,鈥� Zimmerman says. 鈥淲e work with all our peers because the idea is how to help the industry not how to compete better. What we鈥檙e really talking about here is whether this technology is going to exist or not 鈥� not whether it鈥檚 going to give me a particular advantage. You try to make them exist.鈥�

Venture Capital firms are hungry for construction tech

Berlin-based construction tech investor Fundamental is probably the biggest of these specialist investors. It reports that the construction tech sector last year surpassed US$30 billion in total venture capital funding, up from just US$5 billion in 2018. Other major funds investing in the sector include US-based Brick & Mortar Ventures, Building Ventures, Zacuna Ventures, Canadian fund GroundBreak Ventures, UK-based Pi Labs.

Yet, as more specialist Contech funds move into the space, established construction companies too have been attempting to get in on the action.

As well as Cemex, French contractor Vinci has set up its own VC division, Leonard which invests in tech in the construction, mobility and energy sectors. Its rival Bouygues also has its own Construction Venture VC division which last year, together with French tech fund ISAI, set up a fund investing in Contech startups. OEMs too have been using their own corporate venture capital arms to invest in con tech start ups with major players including Caterpillar Ventures, Volvo Group Venture Capital and Deere & Co.

Meanwhile Cemex Ventures is also among a number of construction firms including German equipment dealer Zeppelin and Swiss cement manufacturer Holcim, operating its own corporate innovation lab acceleration programme, 鈥楲eaplab鈥� which is dedicated to incubating growth.

The Holcim Innovation Hub was inaugurated in September 2023 and serves as a co-creation lab to accelerate low carbon building. It is based at the company鈥檚 R&D centre in Lyon, France. Photo: Holcim

Sometimes known as accelerators, business incubators or research hubs, these are often physical safe spaces dedicated to sparking in-house innovation as well as collaboration with new tech startups. Common in industries from retail to aerospace, they can range from a virtual space or specially set-aside conference room with white boards on the walls covered in post-it notes and barrels of kombucha on tap, to huge laboratory-style incubator spaces which take their inspiration from innovation spaces such as Xerox PARC and Bell Labs.

For Cemex Ventures, the central idea, Zimmerman says, is to invest in construction tech start-ups that will make life easier, either for its own concrete, cement and aggregates businesses, or in the widest sense for those of its customers. These can include initiatives designed to make the industry greener and more sustainable, to improve health and safety standards and to solve the global housing crisis.

鈥淲e look for solutions where we have identified a pain point,鈥� Zimmerman says. 鈥淚t could be safety, monitoring the progress on construction sites, helping with deliveries or logistics on site. These are all areas where we know there is pain. For us that is where we would focus. If it鈥檚 something that has never at any point in time some connection with Cemex, even as a service for our customers, then it makes no sense. I mean, maybe it鈥檚 a good financial investment but it will never be something where there鈥檚 value for us and so we can鈥檛 adopt the company.鈥�

Zimmermann says Cemex Ventures usually buys stakes of between 5% and 10% in start-ups鈥� seed or series A fund raising rounds, investing sums of between 鈧�200,000 and 鈧�1 million in the firms which it believes will change construction for the better.

Since it was established in 2017, the vehicle has invested in 25 startups, 23 of which, Zimmermann says, are still part of its portfolio.

Which startups are winning backing?

These include Soil Connect, a US-based digital marketplace algorithmically connecting those with dirt and aggregates with those who need it, based on users鈥� proximity and needs, which raised US$3.25 million in seed funding in December 2020.

They also include UK-based Carbon Clean, a startup working on technology that captures carbon on-site for heavy industries which raised US$150 million in a series C investment round in 2022 with investors also including Chevron, Saudi Aramco and Samsung Ventures.

Mexico-based Prysmex is another example. The company uses the Internet of Things to monitor safety standards through a device placed on workers鈥� hard hats, providing real time data on impacts, light and noise levels, locations, temperatures and the presence of toxic gases.

These, says Zimmermann, are good examples of Cemex Ventures鈥� core priorities 鈥� increasing productivity, sustainability and safety.

A demonstration of the Energy Vault solution. Photo: Energy Vault

So far, the company鈥檚 biggest success story has been Energy Vault, company which uses gravity to create a natural battery, employing massive blocks which it raises into the air with a crane, storing the energy that went into lifting them and, when lowered, releasing the energy back.

Cemex invested in the startup in 2018 but exited the firm in 2022 when it merged with special purpose acquisition company Novus Capital Corp II and floated on the New York Stock Exchange.

Less successful has been Cemex Ventures鈥� investments in Modulous, a UK-based company which provides design and feasibility software to provide the components needed to build modular housing. The firm went into liquidation earlier this year, owing GBP拢6.2 million (US$8 million).

鈥淥ur investments are long term,鈥� Zimmermann says. 鈥淣ormally the strategy for venture capital is that one good exit pays for the others. We call it fund return. With Energy Vault we鈥檝e had a very good exit obviously.鈥�

鈥淚 would say we鈥檙e good in terms of financial return,鈥� he adds. 鈥淥bviously the venture capital industry is not a very liquid industry so although we know the fair valuation of our portfolio, until there is an exit we won鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 real or not.鈥�

鈥淓xpecting growth this year鈥�

But with the global industry still recovering from the effects of the global pandemic and the subsequent price inflation, slowing property markets and interest rate hikes, is it really a good time to invest in construction?

Zimmermann points out that although the number of deals by venture capitalists in general has slowed in 2024, the amount in the Contech sector increased 18% in the first half of 2024 compared with the same period a year earlier.

鈥淭he amounts we have invested have been reduced in the last few years but in terms of activity we鈥檙e similar to other years,鈥� Zimmermann says. 鈥淭he final financing rounds take longer and it鈥檚 more difficult to get capital out there, but the talent pull is the same, so we still get a lot of opportunities. We think the bottom of the market was last year and we鈥檙e expecting growth this year.鈥�