Concretene

Concretene, a Manchester-based company founded in 2020, is positioned to address the substantial carbon footprint of the construction industry. The firm operates in the advanced materials market, focusing on developing, producing, and supplying a graphene-enhanced liquid admixture for concrete. This product is designed to be integrated at the batching plant stage, targeting concrete manufacturers and large-scale construction clients. The business model centers on selling this proprietary admixture, which aims to reduce costs for clients through decreased cement usage, shorter curing times, and enhanced material performance, potentially lowering CO2 emissions from concrete by 10-15% depending on the application.

The company's origins are closely tied to The University of Manchester's Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC). Civil engineers and co-founders Rob Hibberd and Alex McDermott leveraged their extensive construction industry experience to collaborate with the GEIC, developing the initial prototype. This foundational work led to the hiring of a dedicated team, including co-inventor Dr. Craig Dawson, to commercialize the product. Concretene's core offering is a liquid admixture that utilizes nanomaterial technology, specifically graphene, to refine the microstructure of concrete. This process significantly boosts the material's compressive, tensile, and flexural strength. A key benefit is the ability to reduce the volume of cement—the primary source of CO2 emissions in concrete—and decrease the need for steel reinforcement, thereby lowering the overall embodied carbon of a project. The technology has demonstrated strength uplifts of 25-30% in laboratory settings and an average of 17% in field trials.

Concretene has secured significant financial backing to fuel its growth, including a total of $3.92M from a Seed round in October 2024, co-led by Molten Ventures and LocalGlobe. This funding is allocated towards achieving product certification and scaling revenue. The company has also been successful in obtaining government grants, including £1.2m from Innovate UK to support collaborations. Strategic partnerships are a cornerstone of Concretene's strategy. The company is working with pre-cast manufacturer Roger Bullivant and cement giant Cemex on low-carbon formulations and has engaged with engineering consultancy Arup for a comprehensive material testing program. Early demonstrator projects have been completed, including a gym floor in Amesbury and a suspended floor at a leisure complex in Manchester, deploying over 300m³ of the material to validate its real-world application. As the first tenant in Manchester's Sister innovation district, Concretene is at the heart of an ecosystem dedicated to advanced materials.

Keywords: graphene concrete, concrete admixture, nanomaterial technology, construction technology, sustainable construction, low-carbon concrete, cement reduction, decarbonization, advanced materials, embodied carbon, construction materials, material science, green building, compressive strength, flexural strength, GEIC, University of Manchester, Molten Ventures, LocalGlobe, cleantech