This article was first published by NZ Entrepreneur.
Based in Parnell’s Outset Ventures in Auckland, deep-tech startup Neocrete has created a breakthrough concrete additive inspired by ancient Roman chemistry. With their low-carbon innovation now gaining traction offshore, one small New Zealand team could hold the key to reducing up to eight percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
Concrete isn’t something most people think about unless they’re pouring a driveway or staring at a half-finished building. But behind the scenes, concrete quietly props up almost everything about modern life. It’s the world’s most-used building material and making it generates a staggering 7–8 percent of global carbon emissions, more than the entire country of India produces.
For decades, scientists and policymakers have warned that without a breakthrough, the concrete industry’s carbon footprint will continue to rise alongside global infrastructure demand. And for just as long, innovators have been searching for a credible alternative. Neocrete believes it has found the key, not by reinventing concrete from scratch, but by re-engineering the way it’s made.
Neocrete is the venture founded by Zarina Alexander and Matt Kennedy-Good, who began working together in 2018 with a simple but ambitious question: Could concrete be made not only greener, but also stronger, more durable, and more affordable?
Their answer came in the form of a breakthrough additive that, when blended with abundant low-carbon materials such as volcanic ash, produces a cement-like binder without the carbon-intensive processing that defines today’s cement industry. As Alexander succinctly puts it, Neocrete “develops an additive that turns low-carbon, low-cost materials into cement without the need for further processing.”
