£4m · Other round · Cleantech · Bristol, UK
Bristol-based construction-materials company Adaptavate has secured a £4m funding package combining equity investment with UK and European innovation funding. Backers include the European Innovation Council, Innovate UK's Investor Partnerships Programme, Low Carbon Innovation Fund 3 and other existing and new shareholders.
Adaptavate develops processes for making carbon-storing wallboard. It will use the package to move from technology development into commercial deployment, accelerate its licensing strategy and build international manufacturing partnerships with existing wallboard producers.
Licensing shifts the scale problem to existing factories
Building new wallboard factories would require Adaptavate to finance heavy industrial capacity market by market. Licensing its process to existing manufacturers can use plants, distribution and customer relationships that are already in place, reducing the capital needed to expand. It also shortens the route from a validated process to local production capacity.
That model still depends on proving the process works at competitive cost and quality on other companies' production lines. The funding package therefore bridges two different risks: grants support industrial validation, while equity helps build the commercial and technical teams needed to turn successful trials into repeatable licences.
