IN Brief:
- The University of Manchester spin-out has secured £4.5m in the first close of a Series A funding round.
- The investment includes £2m from NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance, with existing investors also participating.
- Earlier tests indicate potential cement reductions of 10–20% in selected mixes, pending wider manufacturing and field validation.
Concretene has raised £4.5m in the first close of its Series A funding round to expand production of a graphene-based concrete admixture and carry out larger trials with industrial partners. The University of Manchester spin-out is also developing a manufacturing route using carbon sourced from wastewater biogas. Its aim is to enable lower cement content in concrete while maintaining the strength and other properties required by each mix design.
The financing includes £2m from NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance, managed by PXN Ventures within the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. Existing backers LocalGlobe and Molten Ventures also participated. The money is intended for admixture manufacturing capacity, industrial trials and the proposed Manchester graphene programme. The business has not announced completion of a multi-tonne production plant or commercially qualified supply volumes as part of this first close.
Producing clinker, the principal component of conventional Portland cement, requires high-temperature processing and releases carbon dioxide both from fuel consumption and limestone calcination. Replacing a proportion of cement in a concrete mix can therefore reduce embodied emissions, provided the finished material still meets its design and durability requirements. The actual reduction depends on the base mix, any supplementary cementitious constituents, production energy and transport as well as admixture dosage.
Concretene’s admixture introduces graphene-based material into a cementitious mixture rather than acting as a bulk substitute for cement. The company is examining how the dispersed additive affects the cement binder so that acceptable concrete performance can be achieved with less cement. Graphene’s surface characteristics can affect interactions within a mixture, but the proposed cement saving needs repeatable testing of real formulations rather than an assumption based on the ingredient alone.
Laboratory tests and previous scaled trials have indicated that the admixture can allow a 10–20% reduction in cement in some commonly used mixes without harming reported strength, durability or placement performance. Those are results from selected trial conditions, not a specification covering every cement, aggregate, curing regime or exposure class. A site concrete supplier would have to validate its own batch proportions, workability, strength development and durability before making an equivalent adjustment.
On a working batching plant, performance must be consistent from load to load. The admixture needs reliable dosing and dispersion during mixing, while fresh concrete must retain sufficient workability during transport, pumping, placing and compaction. Strength continues to develop after placement, and applications exposed to water or chemicals require appropriate durability. Industrial trials will have to assess those interacting factors alongside any savings in cement content and embodied emissions.
Concretene is developing a circular feedstock route with United Utilities that would use biogas arising from wastewater operations to produce graphene in Manchester. The longer-term ambition is multi-tonne output, offering a potentially local feedstock and production chain for concrete admixtures. That manufacturing scale has not yet been demonstrated as an operating commercial supply line, and its economics will depend on reliable feedstock processing and consistent graphene production.
A related project received £1m through Ofwat’s Water Breakthrough Challenge in May 2026. Led by United Utilities under the name Splitting Biogas, Multiplying Value, the collaboration includes Concretene, Tarmac, Levidian, ULEMco and Carbon Ion. Its work concerns the conversion of wastewater biogas into useful materials and the testing of industrial applications. The Ofwat funding supports that separate collaborative project rather than forming part of Concretene’s new equity investment.
The £4.5m Series A first close provides company investment for manufacturing development and trials, while the earlier £1m award finances work within the water-industry innovation programme. Neither amount represents an announced order for tonnes of admixture from concrete buyers, and the new equity round does not establish that the graphene manufacturing plant is already operating. Deployment will depend on production consistency and qualification of mixes against project specifications.
Engineering consultancy Arup has supported the company’s technical development and routes to industry adoption, while LocalGlobe first invested in 2022 and Molten Ventures joined later. The investor and partner network gives Concretene access to testing and market expertise, but no new construction contract or confirmed product supply quantity has been identified with this funding. The initial industrial trials will provide evidence of practical dosage, repeatability and performance under commercial batching conditions.
Concretene is targeting cost neutrality when the admixture is manufactured at scale, so concrete buyers would not pay a premium for the reduced cement content. Current commercial pricing has not been independently established. Claims that graphene produced from wastewater biogas could be carbon negative also require a defined accounting boundary; any net carbon saving for a finished concrete asset must include the cement, other ingredients, manufacturing energy, delivery and construction processes relevant to that application.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds visited the company’s materials testing facility in Manchester’s Sister innovation district as the financing was announced. The next steps include expanding admixture manufacture and testing larger batches with concrete industry partners before proposed reductions can be adopted across more projects. The 10–20% range remains a company-reported trial outcome, while cost parity and multi-tonne graphene production are ambitions for the scale-up phase.
