https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/13/furno-seed-round/
"For every 1,000 kilograms of cement the world produces, 600 kilograms of
carbon dioxide are dumped into the atmosphere. If that doesn’t sound like a
lot, consider that last year the world made about 4.2 billion metric tons of
cement, an amount so large that it’s responsible for about 8% of all carbon
pollution.
It’s a big problem, one which weighed on Gurinder Nagra’s mind as a graduate
student at Stanford University. It wasn’t the focus of his PhD — that would be
carbon capture and storage — but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. When he
took a class on energy ventures three different times in two years, “every time
was focused on cement,” he told
TechCrunch.
It wasn’t just the pollution that bothered Nagra. “Emissions are one aspect.
The other is that it’s just this overlooked, dirty industry, but it’s kind of
necessary to modern civilization. It’s everywhere,” he said. Doing something in
cement could have ripple effects far beyond climate change.
“The companies that control the supply of cement in the background run the
world almost. Not so much as the oil industry, but they have a lot of power,”
he said. “It costs a billion dollars to build a new plant. If a company decides
to build a plant in a developing economy or a developing country, that company
has control over the destiny of the trajectory of that developing economy.”
So, after finishing his degree in 2020, Nagra founded Furno. The goal was
straightforward but ambitious: upend the cement industry."
Via Wayne Radinsky.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
