You don’t need us to tell you that time flies! As we enter the 2nd half of 2024, we’re bringing you the top deals and investment stats from the 1st half of the year.
In the last 3 months of H1 2024, the construction industry experienced more activity than in the first quarter, with technologies focused on sustainability and efficiency leading the investments. Here are some insights from Cemex Ventures’ investment team who have gathered the most relevant insights from 2024 thus far.
Table of contents
Q2 2024 Summary
From April to June, investments totaled US$554 million over 79 deals. Comparing Q2 to Q1 (2024), the overall number of US$ invested decreased slightly by 18%. However, the number of deals increased by 20%.
- Total investment: $554M
- Total number of deals: 79
Taking a big-picture view of H1 2024, this period experienced a total investment volume of US$1.226 billion, marking a 1.6% decrease compared to the same period in 2023. Another sign of growth is that the total number of deals reached 145, which is 18% higher than in the first half of 2023.
Investment by Focus Area
Technologies focused on sustainability and productivity improvement are receiving the most attention in 2024 so far. The breakdown by investment amount in Q2 2024 across Cemex Ventures’ four market-driven opportunity areas was:
- Green Construction: 35%
- Construction Supply Chain: 20%
- Enhanced Productivity: 30%
- Construction’s Future: 15%
In terms of the amount of money invested (%), Green Construction (35%) emerged as the dominant Focus Area, covering Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage (CCUS), water efficiency, alternative fuels & new energy resources, circular business models, sustainable materials, and other solutions that enhanced construction’s sustainability.
Following closely behind was investment in Enhanced Productivity (30%), which includes solutions like geotechnical analysis, project tendering, BIM (Building Information Modeling) & digital twins, and health and safety tools, among others.
Compared to Q1, these results show little deviation. In the first quarter, Enhanced Productivity led, followed by Green Construction. Yet, in Q2 we can see a more even distribution of investment across all areas of interest. It’s important to highlight that investment in Green Construction has grown significantly more than in other categories because each year the race to become green is more competitive.
Investment by Region
The majority of Contech and Cleantech investments in Q2 were concentrated in North America, continuing a trend observed since last year and persisting into the first two quarters of 2024, closely followed by Europe, which has doubled its investment compared to Q1.
Following is the breakdown by investment amount in Q2 2024 across various regions:
- North America: 55%
- Europe: 30%
- Asia & Oceania: 13%
- Middle East: 0%
- Latam: 1%
- Africa: 1%
Below is the investment breakdown comparison by region for Q1 & Q2 2024:
Top Deals
In Q2
Every month, our investment team tracks and compiles the top deals in Contech & Cleantech. Here are our top 3 deals for Q2 2024:
- Infra.Market raises $50M in funding: In May, Infra.Market, the building and construction materials supplier, closed a US$50 million funding round from Mars Unicorn Fund at a US$2.5 billion valuation. Read more!
- Chevron Corporation invests in ION Clean Energy: In April, Chevron Corporation announced its role as one of the newest equity holders in the innovative carbon capture firm, ION Clean Energy. Read more!
- AssetWatch closes $38M in Series B funding: In May, AssetWatch, a leading condition monitoring and predictive maintenance organization, announced closing its Series B financing round of US$38 million. Read more!
Check out the top deals of April & May in case you missed them!
In June & July
And as a sneak peek, we’re giving you a heads-up on the hottest deals that took place in the first two months of Q3:
June:
- Tenderd raises $30M in Series A funding: Tenderd, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based company that specializes in digital transformation for heavy equipment management and operations, raised US$30M in Series A funding. Read more!
- Materrup secures €26M in Series A funding: Eurazeo, via its Smart City fund, alongside the EIC Fund and existing investors, is supporting Materrup with a €26m fundraising effort to expand its low-carbon cement technology across France and Europe. Read more!
- Clearstory closes $16M in Series B funding: Clearstory, a Walnut Creek, CA-based provider of a construction change order communication platform, raised US$16M in Series B funding. Read more!
- Climate X raises $18M in Series A funding: Climate X has raised US$18M to accelerate its global expansion and help the world’s leading financial organizations price the impact of climate change across their physical asset portfolios. Read more!
- Neustark announces $69M in funding: Neustark, a Switzerland-based carbon removal provider, has raised US$69 million in a funding round to underpin its rapid scale-up in the carbon dioxide removal (CDR) market. Read more!
- Plancraft obtains €12M in Series A funding: Plancraft, a Hamburg, Germany-based company providing a software solution for the digitalization of work processes in the craft industry, raised €12M in Series A funding. Read more!
July:
- Adaptative closes $19M in Series A funding: Adaptive, a NYC-based provider of a financial automation platform for the construction industry, raised US$19M in Series A funding. The round, which brought the total amount to US$26.4M. Read more!
- HERO Software secures €40M in Series B funding: the leading SaaS platform has closed a €40 million Series B financing round. The round was led by Eight Roads Ventures, with existing investor Cusp Capital also participating again. Read more!
- Vantem announces $30M in Series C funding: Vantem Global raised US$30M in Series C funding to expand the manufacturing of energy-efficient modular homes, planning to build 20 factories in 7 years. Read more!
- HammerTech obtains $70M in growth funding: HammerTech, a Melbourne, Australia- and Menlo Park, CA-based construction safety software company, raised US$70M in growth funding. The round was led by Riverwood Capital. Read more!
- Buildots raises $15M in funding: The Israeli startup’s platform provides a performance-driven approach that measures individual tasks, increasing overall efficiency, and lessening costs while reducing delays by up to 50%. Read more!
- Alcemy closes $10M in funding: Cement and concrete decarbonization startup Alcemy has raised a US$10 million funding scale for its cement decarbonization solution. Norrsken VC led the funding which will be used for continued research and development. Read more!
Key conclusions from our Investment Experts
Closing out H1, these are our key takeaways:
- Activity continues to rise, particularly in early-stage funding rounds, ranging from pre-seed to Series A.
- Regarding regions, North America and Europe lead compared to others, accounting for 90% of all deals.
- More financial entities are joining the investment rounds (more diversity in terms of investors).
- Sustainability & productivity deals account for over three-quarters of the total funding.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot topic – 30% of startups who raised capital have AI-related solutions.
Whether you are a startup, SME, corporate, building professional, media journalist, or just want to find out more, we encourage you to contact us through our website or follow us on LinkedIn & X.
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