GCCA holds its Innovandi Open Challenge 'Demo Day'

By ICR Newsroom

19 October 2022

The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has revealed the latest results of its first ever Innovandi Open Challenge, its industry accelerator that partnered six start-ups from around the world with GCCA members to develop and commercialise new decarbonisation technologies.

The two-day ‘Demo Day’ event took place at VDZ’s (German Cement Association) headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany, and showcased the positive progress made by the six consortia during the Open Challenge, which began last year. The event included presentations from Carbon BioCapture, CarbonOrO, Carbon Upcycling Technologies, Coomtech, Fortera and MOF Technologies.

Under each consortium, the start-ups have been provided with tailored mentoring and key resources to accelerate their innovative technologies, which reduce or eliminate carbon throughout the cement and concrete value chain. Each is made up of a start-up company and includes between three and eight cement companies, with 16 GCCA member companies involved across the six innovation consortia.

Thomas Guillot, GCCA chief executive, said, “Our Open Challenge has been a pioneering force and is already making significant progress in developing innovations that help us decarbonise faster."

At the event a new open challenge was announced which is set be launched in the new year. It will look to pair start-ups with GCCA members in the field of low carbon concrete.