Recently, Co-founders & Managing Partners Avi Naidu and Jonathan Hannam from Taronga Ventures, visited Abu Dhabi to strengthen international sustainable technology exchange in the UAE.

The visit included a tour of the Emirates Beton concrete plant in Mussafah, which is the latest location for Taronga Ventures portfolio company CarbonCure Technologies, a fast-growing carbon dioxide removal tech company that partners with concrete producers to permanently store CO₂ in concrete and reduce carbon-intensive cement materials in each mix. CarbonCure’s technologies inject CO₂ directly into concrete as it is being mixed, where it mineralizes and is permanently stored, never to be released into the atmosphere.           

The process of making cement accounts for about 7% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Concrete is the most used material in the world after water, with over 4 billion tons of cement produced each year, offering a significant opportunity to decarbonize the construction sector. CarbonCure’s technologies have saved more than 200,000 metric tons of CO₂ to date – equivalent to the CO₂ absorbed by 236,687 acres of forest in a year – and the company is on a mission to reduce and remove 500 million metric tons of CO₂ annually.

“As CarbonCure continues to expand the availability of our technologies to concrete producers around the world, we are excited for the market opportunity sustainable construction represents in the United Arab Emirates,” said CarbonCure Chair and CEO Robert Niven. “Our technologies are designed to be universally applicable for any of the 125,000 concrete plants worldwide, to maximize our impact in helping the world to reach global emissions targets. We are excited and grateful for Taronga Ventures’ partnership as we scale our solutions.”

For Jonathan Hannam, who is also a former Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) real estate executive, it was a great opportunity to return to Abu Dhabi.

“It is incredible to see that the Abu Dhabi building sector’s long-term focus to decarbonise, and there is a strong commitment to sustainable development. Many of the investments from our RealTech Ventures funds have a focus on delivering environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact in the built environment, and we are excited by the many customer opportunities in the UAE.”

Three of Taronga Ventures’ portfolio companies joined Avi and Jonathan in Abu Dhabi for a series of meetings with major investors and real estate groups, including:

• Spacecube – Modular building system for semi-permanent events, activations, hospitality, healthcare and commercial property that is flat-packable, reusable, relocatable and customizable
• OpenSpace – 360-degree photo documentation software for construction that provides jobsite analytics to improve transparency and efficiency

For more information on CarbonCure, please visit https://www.carboncure.com/.