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Photo: Ricardo Gomez Angel / Unsplash
AI concrete startup AICrete has announced that it has raised $4 million in seed funding led by venture capital firms CLEAR Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures, as well as Cortical Ventures.
AICrete is a recipe-as-a-service platform that optimizes materials for cleaner, more cost-effective concrete. The company responds to the waste of conventional concrete manufacturing that tends to rely on “gut feeling”. However, the resulting formulations are not necessarily the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly options.This poor optimization accounts for 8-10% of the world’s carbon footprint. Leading to waste and sustainability issues in a trillion dollar industry.
AICrete addresses this problem by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and domain knowledge to create more optimal concrete mixes for ready-mixed and precast concrete producers. Clients state the properties and objectives they want to achieve and provide raw material datasheets and costs for the concrete mix they want AICrete to optimize. The company then tests different combinations of raw materials to minimize cost and carbon dioxide per cubic yard while meeting client goals. According to AICrete, this method can help concrete manufacturers reduce their carbon footprint by up to 35%.
“AICrete technology is a great approach and should bring significant benefits to many concrete manufacturers,” said Martin Scheiber, director of manufacturing at Clark Pacific, a manufacturer of prefabricated building systems. The continued rise in raw material costs and the reduction in the overall carbon footprint of concrete places a need for this type of service on R&D, quality and operations teams across industries. ”
According to an AICrete press release, the company plans to use this funding round to expand its proof-of-concept program to several major concrete manufacturers. Grow your database and improve your predictive machine learning models. We also develop software and robotic systems to automate data collection.
While AICrete offers services to reduce the environmental impact of the concrete industry, some would argue that reducing the carbon footprint of concrete producers by 35% is still not enough. This is especially poignant as alternatives to concrete and construction, such as 3D printing and organic building materials, are developed and gaining popularity. Ambitious targets, including the goal of cutting our carbon footprint by a quarter by 2030 and achieving carbon neutral concrete by 2050, will support the continued use of concrete, as well as optimized things should be questioned.
