Venture debt accelerates ultra-low carbon cement rollout while 3D-printed home and Contech Top 50 shape construction market

Climate tech funding and building innovation move forward with venture debt, startup rankings and a landmark 3D‑printed home

A UK‑based cement technology company has secured a venture debt facility from a major innovation bank to speed up commercial development of its ultra‑low carbon cement. At the same time, a construction investor group released a list of the top 50 construction technology startups for 2025, and a Russian firm’s 3D construction printing work from 2015–17 has been highlighted as the first completed residential building of its type in Europe and the CIS. Together these items show both the financing shifts and on‑the‑ground advances shaping lower‑carbon and digital construction.

Funding for low‑carbon cement aims to close gap to market

The technology company won a venture debt agreement from an innovation banking unit that works with high‑growth, innovation-led firms. The debt line is intended to help the company move beyond early grants and venture equity toward a broader capital structure as it scales production and sales of its first product, which is positioned as an alternative to traditional Portland cement.

The company’s production approach uses a mix of alkali fusion processing and AI‑driven design to develop binder formulations that it says can cut lifecycle carbon emissions by up to 85% compared with conventional cement making. The new financing will be used to build commercial traction and support steps toward larger manufacturing and market entry.

Company leadership framed the debt move as a deliberate step to diversify funding sources as the business grows and to accelerate progress toward a fully scaled capital stack. The bank’s director responsible for innovation banking noted the arrangement fits a wider focus on opening growth paths for climate tech firms and supporting the scale‑up of technologies aimed at reducing emissions.

Investor view: digital and green solutions remain priorities

A separate industry investor group published its sixth annual ranking of the most promising construction technology startups for 2025. The selection spans four strategic areas: Green Construction (sustainability), Enhanced Productivity (efficiency), Construction Supply Chain (agility), and Future of Construction (disruption).

The investor group’s report finds that 2024 saw roughly US$3.1 billion invested across 325 deals. That result included about a 38% rise in the number of deals year‑on‑year and a modest 2.3% increase in total capital deployed. Deal mix in 2024 leaned heavily toward efficiency wins, with nearly half of deals tied to Enhanced Productivity, while solutions tied to Green Construction made up almost a quarter of transactions. The group interprets these figures as evidence that investors remain selective but still interested in solutions that advance digital transformation and carbon reduction goals in construction.

3D printing milestone: a full, occupied house built with printed parts

Separately, a project completed in Yaroslavl between 2015 and 2017 is being cited as the first residential building in Europe and the CIS assembled from parts made by construction 3D printers. The building development involved digital modelling, slicing the model into layers, layer‑by‑layer extrusion of a cement‑based mix, printing parts in a workshop, transporting them to site and assembling the structure.

Construction of the project began in 2015. The printed building frame was assembled on its base in under a month in December 2015. The roof was finished in summer 2017 and interior fit‑out followed. The finished house, which meets individual housing construction rules and was connected to utilities, has nearly 298.5 square metres of floor area and was intended for everyday family use rather than demonstration only.

The parts were produced on a portal‑type printer with a working field of about 3.5 x 3.6 x 1 m, using a common sand‑crete mix and printed with layers roughly 10 mm high and 30–50 mm wide. Reported wall print speeds reached up to 15 sq.m/h. Printing in parts and assembling onsite is presented as a practical route to scale, and developers involved say the method reduced the time from design to production by a factor of up to 8–12x compared with conventional workflows at that time.

Why these items matter for the construction sector

Together the funding announcement, the startup ranking and the 3D printing project point to two broad shifts: first, capital structures for climate and construction tech are evolving to include non‑dilutive debt as well as equity; second, digital manufacturing techniques for buildings are moving from experimentation toward real, habitable outcomes. Both trends can influence how quickly low‑carbon materials and automated building methods enter broad use.

What to watch next

• Commercial roll‑out pace for the ultra‑low carbon cement product and any demonstration or factory projects.
• Investment patterns in 2025 for startups focused on productivity and sustainability, and whether deal volumes continue to recover.
• Further real‑world projects using 3D printed building parts, equipment speed and material advances that affect cost and regulation compliance.