XtreeE partners with the CNRS and École des Ponts ParisTech to industrialise printed structural concrete
The French company and 3D-printing pioneers XtreeE has just announced a partnership with Laboratoire Navier. Associated with the CNRS and Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, it notably leads the Build’In project aimed at supporting the construction sector’s digital transformation.
The collaboration aims to produce by 2024 an industrial prototype for producing a new type of 3D printed material, reinforced with long fibres. This fibre material has multiple advantages: it’s resistant, thus offers a greater freedom of form and is more environmentally friendly than existing materials currently on the market.
“By developing this material, we will be able to build structures that are more resistant to traction, wear and impact, fire or even erosion. When designing projects, 3D printing allows the advantage of the greater freedom of form and reduces the amount of material required,” explains the company in a press release.
XtreeE was created in 2015 to make large-scale 3D printing projects more popular. Over the years, it has increased its links with the academic world. In France and internationally, several research institutes and universities use its printing units to conduct their research.
With $2.9 million in funding, Agave wants to connect different construction software to facilitate collaboration
The Californian startup Agave, a member of the American accelerator Y Combinator’s class of 2022, has just raised $2.9 million in seed funding from Accel Partners and a dozen business angels.
Founded by four former colleagues at Graphiq, the data analysis startup that was acquired by Amazon in 2017, Agave has developed an API that connects more than 30 different software systems used by construction industry companies every day. As such, the tool enables users to obtain a real-time analysis of the progress of each project.
After having conducted more than 300 interviews with workers in this sector – notably those who used Procore and Autodesk software, as well as foremen and site managers – the team of co-founders identified a major obstacle on the way to digitizing the construction industry: the lack of connection between the different software systems and applications on the market, which required manual data transfers.
The startup now has 70 clients and has quadrupled its turnover compared to last year. The funds will be used to hire new developers and to continue adding new integrations.
French startup Accenta raises €4.7 million for low-carbon construction
The VC firm Serena has just invested €4.7 million in the French startup Accenta, alongside EREN Groupe and Bpifrance. It aims to make low-carbon construction more widespread and as quickly as possible, thanks to its heating and air conditioning solutions for buildings and eco-neighbourhoods.
Following three years of R&D, the company claims that its technology can reduce energy consumption by up to 60% and building CO2 emissions by up to 80% during the operational phase.
Concretely, this solution heats and cools buildings using artificial intelligence algorithms, to produce the right amount of heat and cold at the right time, while relying on inter-seasonal thermal energy storage which uses solar heat or heat collected from air conditioning systems.
This technology is the result of collaboration with research laboratories, including the ARMINES Center for Energy Efficiency of Systems – MINES PARISTECH, the BRGM (France’s public institution for Earth science applications) and the Ecole Polytechnique. It can be used for both new-builds and for renovating existing buildings.
There’s more…
German construction equipment rental platform Schuttflix raises €45 million – Tech.eu
Austrian startup Metaloop raises €16 million euros for its scrap metal recycling platform – Tech Crunch
Californian startup Hyprlift receives $1 million to develop next-gen elevators – Construction Week Online
Suffolk Technologies presents the new cohort of startups selected for its BOOST programme – Business Wire
