London Technology Fund (LTF), London’s specialist investor in new technology companies, today announced that it has made a follow-on investment in Novacem Limited, the carbon negative cement company. LTF’s follow-on investment was as part of a syndicate including construction company Laing O’Rourke and existing investors Imperial Innovations and the Royal Society Enterprise Fund. Together, the syndicate invested more than £1.5m which takes the total investment raised by the Company to more than £2.5m.
Novacem is developing a cement based on magnesium oxide which has the potential to transform the cement industry from being a significant emitter of CO2 to being an absorber of CO2. The annual production of around 2.9 billion tonnes of conventional Portland cement is already responsible for some 5% of man-made global CO2 emissions, and cement volumes are expected to grow significantly. In contrast to Portland cement, no carbon emissions are released from the raw material used in Novacem’s cement, and overall more CO2 is absorbed than emitted during production.
David McMeekin, Chairman of LTF, said, “Novacem’s cement is an excellent example of the world class technology emanating from London’s universities. This is a product which has the potential to transform the cement industry and reduce CO2 emissions on a global scale. We are delighted at the progress the Novacem team has made since our first investment and welcome this opportunity to provide further support for the next stage of development.”
Stuart Evans, Chairman of Novacem, commented that, “The cement industry is working hard to improve current Portland cement technology and to reduce emissions, but the limestone raw material is a fundamental barrier to how far they can go. It’s clear that revolution is needed, not just adaptation, and at Novacem we are taking that challenge on. The further investment from LTF and others will enable us to continue our technology development programme and work with our partners to achieve commercialisation.”
Novacem is a former winner of the Academic Enterprise Awards Europe (ACES).
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