Today Strong by Form, a leading Spanish bio-composite technology company, is pleased to announce the successful completion of its seed funding round, raising $5.2 million.
Woodflow technology develops wood-based composites for lightweight, high-performance applications, offering a viable and eco-friendly alternative to conventional structural materials like concrete and steel.
Control over the form and material architecture allows the company to produce stress-tailored structural parts capable of fully profiting from wood’s performance. For example, a 34.8 kg lightweight slab prototype could withstand 630 kg (beyond Eurocode 5 requirements for residential structures) with a deflection of only 6.2 mm.
Further, Woodflow is material efficient, achieving the strength of concrete at 1/10 of its weight and saving 75 percent of the trees required to support a load compared to cross-laminated timber (the leading technology used to construct timber buildings today).
Multiple layers of software are embedded in all Woodflow products. These include proprietary structural optimisation software and the manufacturing software Strong by Form, which is used to run its high-productivity robotic manufacturing process aimed at strengthening the transition from on-site to off-site construction.
Woodflow has the potential to revolutionise various industries, including construction and automotive.
The company is currently focused on construction and is already developing a project with Deutsche Bahn while it explores other markets thanks to a close relationship with the BMW Group.
The round was oversubscribed by over 25 percent and led by CMPC Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of CMPC, one of the world's largest pulp and paper producers.
Alongside CMPC Ventures, the Seed funding includes investment from CiRi Ventures, MAIF Avenir Ventures, Teampact Ventures, Climate Insiders, Core Angels, Savia Ventures, Family Offices, and corporate venture capitals Symbia VC, FINSA, and VX Ventures.
Strong by Form's Founder, Andrés Mintik, commented:
"Our ability to blend nature and technology has demonstrated that we can utilise wood in a smarter, more efficient, and highly sustainable manner.
Our Woodflow technology has been designed to deploy on a massive scale across multiple industries, allowing timber to play a pivotal role in solving the climate crisis.
We are proud that seasoned investors and corporates from the timber sector share our vision of highly efficient, future-proof sustainable structural material technologies."
Bernardita Araya, CMPC Ventures Manager, said:
“CMPC is very excited to partner with Strong by Form, and has an enthusiastic dedicated team of technical, strategic, and commercial experts to help the acceleration to industrial scale, making the most of the many synergies towards the development of these more sustainable construction solutions.”
Strong by Form will use the investment to double in size and build an industrial manufacturing facility. New hires will focus on strengthening its R&D and product development capabilities while a full manufacturing team will also be brought on board.
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments