Betolar Plc

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Betolar Plc

Type	Public company
ISIN	🆔
Founded 📆	2016 in Kannonkoski, Finland
Founder 👔	Juha Leppänen
Headquarters 🏙️	Kannonkoski; address: Mannilantie, 43300 Kannonkoski, Finland
Area served 🗺️
Products 📟	Geoprime solution recipes and chemicals
Members
Number of employees
🌐 Website	https://www.betolar.com/
📇 Address
📞 telephone

Betolar Plc is a Finnish publicly listed material technology company founded in 2016, offering the Geoprime solution it has developed to make concrete production sustainable and low-carbon. Betolar aims to meet three main challenges of the construction industry: carbon dioxide emissions from cement production, unutilized side streams of various industries and the scarcity of virgin raw materials. The solution converts industrial side streams into a substitute for cement.

Betolar's mission is to help the concrete industry reduce CO2 emissions and the use of virgin natural resources. The cement industry produces about seven percent of global CO2 emissions. With Geoprime by Betolar the raw material CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 80 percent of the current level. In addition, with the help of Betolar's solution, the side streams of the mining industry can be transformed from waste into usable raw materials.

Betolar is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland and the company is headquartered in Kannonkoski.

History

The company's story began with replacing cement in garden furniture. Juha Leppänen from Kannonkoski, Central Finland, started making special concrete paving tiles in 2016. Instead of cement, he tried using ash as a binder for the tiles. The following year, at the Mikkeli housing fair, Ajanta fund's venture capitalist Ari Salmivuori noticed the products. The investor saw a bigger opportunity than just the local production of paving tiles.

The production lines were sold off, and product development began by hiring the first PhD in chemistry to conduct research on geopolymers, with the goal of commercializing the technology. The research continued for a couple of years and the business model planning began. The development work has continued rapidly to the scientific study of various industrial side streams. The applications are built on deep scientific and in practice tested knowledge.

At the end of 2020, Betolar got Voima Ventures as an anchor investor. Taaleri and Valve Ventures also participated in the two-million-euro funding round. In 2021, Betolar organized a financing round of five million euros, which ended in September. The company's investors were, among others, Nidoco owned by Alexander and Albert Ehrnrooth and Kiilto Ventures, Ahti Invest and Kilo Invest. Since the early stages, one of Betolar's key advisors has been Nokia’s former CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

In November 2021, the State of Finland's Climate Fund granted Betolar a capital loan of seven million euros for the development of an AI platform and digital marketplace that utilizes the side stream database. The funding is the Climate Fund's first funding for a digital solution.

Betolar strengthened its management team and board during the summer and fall of 2021. At the end of July, in addition to the founder Juha Leppänen, the board was formed with the Finnish technology and startup investors, Tero Ojanperä as chairman. The managing director was Matti Löppönen.

Betolar was listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland, operated by the Helsinki Stock Exchange, on December 9, 2021. In the initial public offering, the company collected gross assets of around 35 million euros and gained more than 4,300 new shareholders.

Betolar started the commercial phase in 2022 after concluding the first contracts based on the company's Geoprime solution, with a total of eight customers in Europe and in Asia. The company carried out production pilots with 25 new customers.

In addition to commercial agreements, Betolar has three strategic development cooperation agreements: Critical Metals for the utilization of blast furnace slag cleaned of vanadium, with precast concrete manufacturer Consolis Parma for the development of cement-free hollow-core slabs, and with Lujabetoni for the development of blended cement with better processing properties.

In 2022, Betolar was granted a patent for a method and arrangement for treating and converting waste material into a reinforcing binder. In the future, the binder can be utilised commercially. Hence it creates value for the waste material that is usually generating costs. The company has a total of five patents or patent families.

At the end of 2022, Betolar had 61 employees representing 14 different nationalities. The recruitments carried out were particularly focused on strengthening commercial expertise, research and product development, and building supply chains. Exel Composites' former CEO Riku Kytömäki started as CEO on 1 November 2022.

Strategy and markets

Betolar's business is based on bringing replacement solutions to currently used cement-based concrete products. The business logic is based on using cement-free binder directly or with small changes in the existing concrete manufacturing process. The transition to cement-free concrete production does not require large investments from customers.

National climate commitments and sustainable financing models strongly increase the demand for green construction technologies in Betolar's target markets. The value of the green construction market has risen significantly in a short period of time, and growth is not expected to slow down.

In Europe, Betolar's competition consists mainly of companies offering blended cements. In blended cements, part of the cement clinker has been replaced by ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), which is a side stream of the steel industry. However, the challenge of blended cement is that the cement clinker can only be replaced with blast furnace slag to a certain point. The increasing slag content has a negative effect on the performance properties of concrete, such as the rate of setting and strength development of concrete, which limits the applicability of blended cements. This creates a need for Betolar's solutions that enable the efficient utilization of side streams with properties similar to cement-based concrete.

In Asia, the most significant competitors are traditional cement manufacturers. The availability of side streams drives the market, and product standards generally focus on properties rather than raw materials, creating favourable opportunities for cementless binders. In addition, the development financing of Western countries is primarily directed towards green projects, which can be estimated to have a positive effect on Betolar's market demand.

Betolar's strategy is based on five central themes that guide the company

1. Focus on the identification and development of alternative side streams and, in particular, on the productization of inexpensive waste streams;
2. Seek a stronger position in the value chain in terms of side streams, for example through cooperation agreements or investments;
3. Accelerate Geoprime solution development for high-volume and scalable customer segments in construction elements and the mining industry;
4. Focus sales and marketing on key geographic markets with demand based on green transition, spin-off availability of side streams and Betolar's ability to deliver economic value through productized solutions;
5. Continue the development of the data-based business ecosystem built around the business model, in which the role of Betolar's AI platform is central.

Technology

Geoprime solution

An innovation utilizing AI can reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the use of cement by up to 80 percent by optimizing existing manufacturing processes, supporting solution development with advanced analytics, and creating global markets for side streams.

The functionality of the Geoprime solution has been proven in practice in ready-cast concrete product groups, such as paving stones and sewer pipes, as well as in various lighting and charging station bases. In Europe, IBF in Denmark and Tubobel in Belgium have started the production of cementless sewer tubes. Sneh Precast in India has also started the production of concrete products for infrastructure and environmental construction, such as tubes and pavements, with the Geoprime solution.

In the summer of 2023, a new innovation center will be completed in Kannonkoski, Betolar's hometown, where new side streams will be studied for use in the concrete industry. Materials research includes about 200 different side streams, but the focus of the research is currently on fly ash (class F), slag (GGBFS or SSM), clay, natural pozzolans, silica and rice husk.

Utilization of digitization and artificial intelligence

Betolar has developed the data bank and digitization as a key strength factor since the beginning of its operations. As part of the research and analysis work on side streams carried out in its own laboratory, Betolar collects data from external sources on the characteristics of side streams. Data is also collected from customers' production processes for material research and recipe development.

Betolar researches and develops digital applications and the use of artificial intelligence with external partners. The accumulated wide-ranging understanding of AI is utilized in materials research. Betolar's development work aims to create a data and service platform for use by customer companies and the entire value chain. With the help of the platform, the producer and user of the side stream can be matched and receive a recipe suitable for the side stream and the application from Betolar.

Recognitions

• 2021 – Kannonkoski Entrepreneurs’ Association: Juha Leppänen – Entrepreneur of the Year
• 2021 – The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra: The most interesting companies in the circular economy in Finland 2.1
• 2022 – The Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion: Pioneer in Circular Economy

References

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