CHF 150k · Other round · Cleantech · Lugano, Switzerland
Foldcast, a Lugano-based university spin-off developing lower-carbon concrete building elements, has secured CHF 150k in Venture Kick support after completing the programme's third and final stage. The latest CHF 100k instalment follows earlier awards of CHF 10k and CHF 40k. According to the USI Startup Centre announcement, the funding will support Foldcast's move from validation towards market entry.
The Venture Kick total is cumulative, not a new CHF 150k cheque. Foldcast also received a separate CHF 150k InnoBooster grant earlier in 2026, bringing the two programmes' combined support to CHF 300k. USI says that grant will fund development of Derma, a prefabricated facade system.
Replacing bespoke formwork with a digital paper workflow
Concrete can be used more efficiently when structural elements put material only where loads require it, but complex shapes make conventional timber or metal formwork costly. Foldcast says its software designs both the optimised element and a recyclable paper mould, whose parts are cut digitally, shipped flat and assembled for casting. The company currently presents SlabX, a pre-manufactured floor system, and Vertebra, an on-site assembled staircase.
A supporting project profile reports that Foldcast's paper moulds can be produced five times more cheaply and ten times faster than conventional alternatives, while cutting concrete use by up to 50% and embodied carbon by up to 40%. Those are project claims rather than independent commercial benchmarks, but the same profile records a 7-by-7-metre slab at ETH Zurich as the technology's first real-building application.
The commercial mechanism is material savings without forcing contractors to adopt an entirely new casting process. Foldcast says its elements are designed to Swiss and EU standards and offers design, fabrication, delivery and installation support to architects, engineers, general contractors and developers. That end-to-end model can lower the coordination burden for early customers, but it also makes repeatable engineering, certification and site execution central to scaling.
From university project to product portfolio
Foldcast grew from a 2022 project at Università della Svizzera italiana and has operated as a Lugano-based company since December 2024. The new programme support is modest beside industrial construction budgets, but it is aimed at a precise transition: turning an academic manufacturing method and an initial building demonstrator into products that can be specified, priced and delivered repeatedly. Derma broadens the addressable use cases from floors and stairs into facades; the next proof point is whether the claimed formwork savings survive project-by-project requirements for engineering, production and installation.
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Matti Rönkkö, Kiilto Ventures: Family capital, industrial know-how & sustainable built world — Matti Rönkkö and Kiilto Ventures, hosted on EUVC · 21 October 2025. Its argument that construction-climate products must reach performance and price parity directly frames Foldcast's commercialisation challenge.
