📸 The snapshot:
Tech investors, accustomed to chasing the shiniest, newest inventions, are turning their attention to an age-old commodity: timber.
This week, Sweden’s Modvion raised €11m to build wooden wind turbines. Last week, Austria’s Gropyus announced €100m for its timber homes.
The other poster child of the wood world is Timberhub, a Dutch timber marketplace, which raised a €5.8m seed round last year. It’s been backed by Speedinvest, HV Capital and Creandum — plus a roster of angels, including the cofounders of digital freight-forwarding company Sennder.
🖼 The bigger picture:
Wood is far greener than concrete and steel — two materials which produce a hefty chunk of the construction industry’s emissions. Buildings and the construction sector together are responsible for 30% of total global final energy consumption and 27% of total energy sector emissions.
Real estate companies are looking for greener building solutions — and that’s creating opportunities for startups working with more eco materials, like wood.
⏩ What’s next?
Building regulations are set to tighten in Europe, prompting more real estate companies to turn to greener materials. France has been poised to bring in a law stipulating that all new public buildings have to be constructed from 50% timber.
The EU’s crackdown on single-use plastic (it banned the most common items in 2019 and plans to extend it to include packaging too) could also spur on interest in wood — companies like Sweden’s Paptic are working on combining wood with other materials to produce more sustainable alternatives to plastic.
— Freya, climate tech reporter