Finnish climate tech startup raises $1.5 million for its AI-powered quality assurance solutions to reduce carbon emissions in concrete production

Finnish startup Caidio with data-driven and AI-powered digital quality assurance solutions for concrete construction has collected $1.5M from many investors including ADB Ventures, MiraclePlus, AINS Ventures, HBG Invest, and Random Ventures (Peter Vesterbacka and Kustaa Valtonen) in a seed round. This will help the company change the way of concrete production starting in Asia.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Aku Wilenius and CTO Pasi KarppinenCaidio’s artificial intelligence-powered platform revolutionizes the quality assurance of concrete production with its target to lower carbon footprint of the industry by reducing cement usage, the main ingredient of concrete. One of the ideas is to use recycled concrete instead of brand new aggregates since crushed concrete is a waste material. Caidio helps concrete producers utilize recycled concrete and other aggregates by offering a digital quality control solution where producers are provided with precise data on the used raw materials for producing homogenous concrete.

Finnish AI-startup Caidio raises $1.5 million to transform concrete production and cut emissions in construction

Smart concrete quality assurance startup Caidio has raised $1.5 million in its seed funding round to transform concrete production, particularly in Asia. Investors such as ADB Ventures – the  Asian Development Bank’s venture arm, MiraclePlus, AINS Ventures, HBG Invest, and Random Ventures  (Peter Vesterbacka and Kustaa Valtonen) have also participated in this round. 

Caidio
The MiraclePlus Demo Day in Beijing, where Caidio raised part of the funding

Concrete is the most used human-made material in the world. Its versatility and durability make concrete the most popular material in the construction industry. However, the concrete industry comes with a  colossal carbon footprint as it contributes 7% to 8% of global carbon emissions mostly because of the large carbon footprint of its main ingredient, cement.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Aku Wilenius and CTO Pasi  Karppinen, Caidio offers an Artificial Intelligence-powered platform that revolutionizes the quality  assurance of concrete production. Its digital products, such as Caidio Water Content Optimizer, use vast  amounts of data from concrete production to provide real-time insight into the quality properties of  concrete during the production process. This results in improved quality of concrete, increased productivity  of the manufacturing operations, as well as reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the construction industry. 

Caidio, Aku Wilenius“The typical quality properties of concrete that we use to build our cities and infrastructure are currently  tested manually with methods invented more than a century ago. Caidio’s state of the art digital quality  assurance solutions can help save up to $6B in cement usage in concrete production and reduce millions  of tonnes of CO2 in the rapidly urbanizing Asia each year,” said Aku Wilenius, CEO and Co-Founder of  Caidio.  


Caidio, ADB Ventures, Qiyong Cao“Cement production alone accounts for over 14% of total carbon emissions in the People’s Republic of  China’s, the world’s largest cement producer. Caidio is uniquely positioned to disrupt the concrete  production space with its advanced data analytics and plug-and-play software. We believe Caidio’s  technology will bring tremendous economic benefits to their clients and enable the industry to become  greener and greater,” said Qiyong Cao, ADB Ventures’ Senior Investment Specialist.  


Caidio, AINS Group, Jaakko Jauhiainen“The CO2 footprint is a challenge for the built environment. Caidio has developed a service that is  competitive on the global stage. Technology innovations, such as the one developed by Caidio, are the key  to solving the sustainability challenges facing the real estate and construction sector,” said Jaakko Jauhiainen, AINS Group CTO. 

The company plans to release a suite of new digital products which analyze the core properties of concrete  in production, providing concrete producers with real-time visibility on concrete quality while optimizing  the efficiency of the production operations. 

Caidio’s current solution has been piloted at several concrete production facilities in China. With  demonstrable reductions in carbon emissions and raw material usage, along with more optimal financial  operations, it is looking at solid prospects of expanding its offering beyond concrete production.

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Originally published on ArcticStartup : Original article

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