Gloucestershire biotech Adaptavate secures more than £2M investment

Gloucestershire-born bio-technology company Adaptavate, has secured investment of £2.16 million to scale production of their carbon absorbing plasterboard, Breathaboard.

Amidst growing pressure for the construction sector to identify practical ways to reduce embodied carbon in buildings, products that offer significant carbon savings are increasingly  prized. Adaptavate has designed a scalable, carbon sequestering alternative to one of the most widely used building products used globally; plasterboard.

The combined funding will allow Adaptavate to build a world first pilot production line, enhance research and development lab facilities and teams and complete testing and licencing programmes for Breathaboard. Adaptavate’s already available Breathaplasta product will continue to be marketed through key distribution partners.

The investment round was led by Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2) and Counteract, the world’s first early stage Carbon Removal investor. Several climate focused funds including Perivoli Innovations and One Planet Capital also participated, alongside well known figureheads from the construction industry. Adaptavate have also secured a grant from Innovate UK in excess of £800,000.

This strong consortium of climate investors comes together to accelerate carbon removal through one of the few carbon utilisation pathways capable of durable sequestration in the gigatons of CO2e by mid-century – construction.

Tom Robinson, Managing Director and Founder of Adaptavate said: “This investment will enable us to revolutionise the way construction materials are made without forcing any change on end users. We’re using industrial carbon absorbing processes to produce a healthier, high performance product that is better for the health of people and planet and a genuine drop-in replacement for gypsum plasterboard. It’s a fundamental re-think and re-design of the current system and we are excited to scale this approach around the world”.

Ian Thomas, managing director at Turquoise, fund manager of LCIF2 said: “LCIF2 is pleased to make this investment round in Adaptavate. The construction industry is in urgent need of sustainable, low carbon solutions and Adaptavate’s technology has the potential to make a very positive impact in this area.”

Andrew Shebbeare, Managing Partner at Counteract, said: “The built environment  opens up carbon sequestration pathways with the rare potential for significant value creation combined with the scale to move the carbon needle globally. The key is finding solutions that are easy and cost-effective to implement and can scale rapidly. Tom and Jeff’s deep experience of the space has allowed them to do just that. We’re excited to team up with them and prove the opportunity for carbon negative construction materials.”