£10m · Series A · Cleantech · Cambridge, UK
Cambridge-based Reclinker has secured a £10m Series A to scale its recycled-cement process from industrial trials towards full commercial production in Cardiff. TNW reports that Clean Growth Fund and AP Ventures co-led the round; the company’s supplied announcement also names Development Bank of Wales, Kibo Invest, Zero Carbon Capital and Cambridge Enterprise as participants. The capital will expand production in South Wales and support replication at electric arc furnace sites in Europe and the US.
Making cement inside steel-recycling furnaces
Reclinker’s process starts with cement paste recovered from demolition waste. Instead of feeding quarried limestone into a dedicated kiln, the recovered material replaces part of the lime flux used in electric arc furnaces that recycle steel. The heat re-clinkers the paste, while the resulting slag can be cooled and ground into new cement. The underlying peer-reviewed Nature research found that this route can make Portland-clinker compositions while also reducing the flux emissions associated with steel recycling.
The commercial attraction is the use of infrastructure that steelmakers already operate. Cement producers gain another source of lower-carbon clinker, while steel recyclers can turn a process by-product into a second saleable material. Reclinker says the initial product can cut emissions by more than 50% and reach cost parity with conventional cement; those are company estimates rather than independently verified operating results. Its website positions the system as a circular route from demolished concrete back into new construction.
Reclinker says it has already produced thousands of tonnes through multiple trials at 7 Steel UK’s Cardiff plant and secured its first commercial sales, claims also reported by TNW. That matters because a long-used lower-carbon cement input, blast-furnace slag, becomes scarcer as steelmaking shifts away from blast furnaces. Reclinker is trying to pair that supply gap with the growth of electric-arc steelmaking, creating a route that can expand without building a parallel fleet of cement kilns.
Scale now depends on repeatable industrial integration
The Series A moves the company’s challenge from proving the chemistry to running a dependable supply chain. Reclinker must secure consistent demolition-derived feedstock, control its composition, and integrate processing and milling around steelworks without disrupting their primary output. The research notes that the chemistry is sensitive to silica and alumina levels, although these can be adjusted. Repeatable quality across different waste streams and furnace sites will therefore be central to customer adoption.
Reclinker grew out of University of Cambridge work previously known as Cambridge Electric Cement. Cambridge Engineering documented the early pilot-scale process, while the current company is hiring around South Wales operations and identifies Cambridge as its headquarters. Cardiff is the first commercialisation base; the larger opportunity is a replicable operating model that can travel with electric-arc furnace capacity.
Sources checked:
TNW · Reclinker · Nature · University of Cambridge Engineering · Clean Growth Fund press release supplied to EUVC
