German climatetech startup Co-reactive has raised €6.5 million in seed financing to scale its CO₂ mineralisation technology, advancing its mission to decarbonise one of the world’s most emissions-intensive industries: cement production. As cement accounts for roughly eight per cent of global CO₂ emissions, solutions that meaningfully reduce clinker content while retaining material performance have become increasingly vital for meeting industrial climate targets.
Seed Round Fuels Scale-Up
The funding round was led by HTGF, with participation from NRW.Bank, HBG Ventures, AFI Ventures, Evercurious VC, and several climate-tech angel investors. Co-reactive also secured public support through the Federal Funding for Industry and Climate (BIK) programme managed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
This combined support enables Co-reactive to transition from laboratory innovation to industrial-scale deployment, accelerating the development of its continuous CO₂ mineralisation process.
Turning Captured CO₂ Into Next-Generation Cement Materials
Founded in 2024, Co-reactive has developed a technology that transforms captured CO₂ and natural or industrial minerals, including olivine and metallurgical slags such as EAF and BOF, into CO₂-negative supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs).
These materials:
- reduce clinker content
- lower embodied emissions
- maintain or enhance compressive strength
- improve durability in cement and concrete products
Designed as a drop-in solution, Co-reactive’s process integrates into existing cement and construction material production lines, avoiding costly infrastructure changes.
Supporting a Sector Under Pressure
Traditional SCMs like fly ash and blast furnace slag are becoming increasingly scarce due to the global coal phase-out and structural shifts in steel production. At the same time, cement producers face stricter emissions regulations and growing demand for low-carbon building materials.
Co-reactive’s technology addresses both challenges by creating a scalable, sustainable, and high-performance clinker substitute produced directly from CO₂ emissions and abundant mineral sources.
- Collaboration Across the Value Chain
- Co-reactive works closely with partners including:
- CO₂ capture companies
- raw material providers
- cement and concrete producers
- certification and standards bodies
This ecosystem approach supports rapid industrial deployment, from pilot-scale validation to full-scale mineralisation plants capable of handling 100,000–300,000 tons annually.
- Scaling Toward Industrial Deployment
- With the new capital, Co-reactive plans to:
- expand its laboratory and pilot operations
- construct a continuous demonstration plant with a 1,000-ton annual capacity by Q2 2026
- progress toward first-of-a-kind industrial plants at tens-of-thousands-of-tons scale
Beginning in 2027, these facilities aim to mineralise biogenic or process-related CO₂ directly at cement and steel production sites, turning emissions into valuable construction materials on-site.
A Path Toward CO₂-Negative Cement Materials
By converting CO₂ emissions into useful, durable SCMs, Co-reactive offers a route to CO₂-negative materials that can be adopted globally without overhauling existing cement production processes. As climate pressures intensify and industrial decarbonisation accelerates, the company’s technology stands at the intersection of emissions reduction, material innovation, and circular resource utilisation.
