Based in Luxembourg and founded in 2017, LekoLabs, is a construction startup that is developing sustainable wood-based building materials as an alternative to steel and concrete and applying automation to construction methods.
They have closed a financing round of the Serie A of 21 million dollars. This round is led by the 2150 fund focused on urban sustainability with the participation of Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Tencent, AMAVI, Rise PropTech Fund, Extantia and Freigeist.
Construction is, of course, an extremely polluting business. Not just given the dirt and dust that is inevitably churned up, but in terms of carbon emissions: according to report of the 2017 of the World Green Building Council, building and construction activities together account for 39% of energy-related CO2 emissions when power generation is included in the project.
Therefore, reducing the carbon footprint of construction must be a key element of the global net-zero climate strategy.
LekoLabs presents itself as a "carbon negative" construction company, because it has developed an innovative wall and floor system based solely on wood and wood fiber that, it says, is capable of replacing up to 75% of the cement and the steel currently used in construction in one building.
Their wood composite product is built to withstand high compressive loads (30.000 times its own mass, they claim). They are also sourced from sustainable forestry, meaning that trees felled for wood are replanted, and providing a long and productive lifespan for the material/building, reducing more carbon compared to traditional concrete and steel construction, which requires extremely energy-intensive processes to manufacture.
The affirmation of LekoLabs is that its more sustainable construction method can save “thousands” of tons of CO2 compared to traditional approaches.
Additionally, the startup says its engineered wood has superior insulation properties for buildings that also have thinner walls, which means better heating/cooling performance (your wall system can reduce heating/cooling needs by up to 87%) and up to 10% more usable floor space vs. construction buildings traditional.
Their approach to construction has "one of the lowest carbon footprints possible from the time the building is completed and throughout its lifetime with low heating and cooling emissions."
Though he is careful to add an additional caveat that his methods only "potentially" allow buildings to remain carbon neutral for their entire lifetimes. Clearly, there are many factors that influence a building's emissions and thermal/building properties are just a few of them.
The company's material can be used for buildings up to 100 m high, depending on LekoLabs, now has "multiple" construction projects underway in its Benelux region, including homes, offices and data centers visible on your website.
In addition to engineering wood, LekoLabs says it uses a "completely circular manufacturing process," and what it bills as an "automotive-style, robotics-driven" approach to construction, with components like walls prefabricated outside its factory and delivered to the point of installation, which can reduce the time needed compared to traditional methods (the process is claimed to be 50% faster).
The company has also developed a software platform to help automate and optimize the building design process, using algorithms that it claims can reduce the use of wood compared to traditional buildings, as well as ensure better thermal quality, acoustic and environmental.
This algorithmic approach they claim also means that LekoLabs can solve moisture and noise problems normally associated with wooden buildings.
Fire risk is perhaps a more difficult challenge to fully resolve, given that wood is a flammable material. Your engineered wood would still need to meet building fire safety standards.
LekoLabs it says the Series A funding will be used to scale its software and robotics construction system across Europe, including in Germany, the Nordics and the UK, while continuing to supply finished walls from its factory in Luxembourg.
It also announced a key change in its executive team: former COO of air taxi startup Lilium, Dr. Remo Gerber, has joined as CEO, and current CEO and founder of LekoLabsFrancois Cordier moved to the CTO position to focus more on product.
