Luxembourg-based LEKO Labs, a carbon-negative construction company committed sustainable building materials, has raised $21m (c.£15.4m) in a Series A funding round led by 2150.
Participants also included the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Tencent, AMAVI, Rise PropTech Fund, Extantia and Freigeist.
Alongside the funding, the company also announced that former Lilium CCO Dr Remo Gerber has joined the company as CEO. Current CEO and founder Francois Cordier will be reverting to the CTO role and focus on furthering LEKO Labs’ technology.
Cordier commented: “I’m delighted to welcome Remo as our new CEO and our new investors to help deliver our vision towards a more sustainable building sector.
“Together we have a strong shot at the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions in 2040 by 1% using the LEKO Labs advanced building technology.
His experience in scaling companies and capitalising them will be instrumental for the success of the company.”
The startup has developed a solution using sustainably-sourced wood-based materials to replace up to 75% of concrete and steel used in a single building, dramatically reducing carbon footprint during construction.
Dr. Remo Gerber, CEO at LEKO Labs, said: “We are making a difference today, each of our walls saves several tons of CO2 here and now. By scaling up our solution with automotive robotics we will achieve global impact in the coming years.”
LEKO Labs’ software platform calculates and optimises thermal, acoustic and static properties of the buildings, resolving moisture and noise problems typically associated with wooden buildings.
Furthermore, its robotics-driven approach means that buildings can be manufactured faster, and with greater quality.
Christian Hernandez, co-founder at 2150, added: “The LEKO Labs team is on an important mission to help decarbonise the built environment with a fundamentally different and scalable approach.
“We are delighted to partner with LEKO Labs bringing our climate tech and strong European property investor basis to play and help adoption of a groundbreaking new approach.”
Image credit: LEKO Labs
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