(9:10) You mentioned earlier that the formula in the industry hasn't changed for generations. This industry must be highly established. How has it been to break into such an "old boys club"?

I think our initial introduction came through accelerator programs. We participated in a Lafarge Holcim accelerator that took place in France back in 2018. That's when we pivoted from CO2 additives to focusing on the concrete and construction space. Through this accelerator program, we got connected with Lafarge Canada, and worked our way up the chain by talking to different decision makers. It's a slow process, but our company's technical foundation roots us in the facts and ensures we hit the markers put in place by the labs at Lafarge. We've had the lead technical validator for Lafarge Western Canada give our product the stamp of approval, but we've had to be very diligent in our technical validation. That's helped us move through these large, slow, risk averse companies and get them to take on such a new and innovative technology.

(11:29) One thing that must have gotten you a lot of exposure was the XPrize. Can you tell us about what that is and what it meant for you?

XPrize is an organization that helps put together consortia, bringing a pool of minds together and attracting startups in the early R&D stages by giving them a platform. We participated in the carbon XPrize, supported by NRG Energy and COSIA. We completed a series of rigorous applications and were selected as a top 10 finalist in 2018! This gave us a facility to operate at a carbon capture site that's connected to a natural gas power plant. The emissions from this plant are funneled to the carbon capture unit, where we can then utilize it to make our additives. This has enabled us to test our technology on a large scale. We've been able to go from processing 2 grams to using a reactor that processes 20 tons of material per day, which we couldn't have done without the XPrize. This helped us capture the attention of Lafarge Western Canada, who we supply our material to so they can use it in things like sidewalks, driveways, and even single story foundations now. 

While we didn't win first place, we were awarded the X-Factor award, which recognized our ability as a team to take our technology from a small scale to a semi-commercial operation over the course of two years. This was possible because of the technical validation behind our product.

(15:15) So you're selling the product, but you're not in the advanced commercial stage yet. What are your goals for growth?

Yeah! We just completed a bridge financing round of $5 million USD that will enable us to expand our team and start bringing our technology to the commercial scale. 20 tons per day may seem like a lot, but it's very small in the concrete world. There are billions of tons of concrete laid every year, so we need to hit a much larger volume to see real carbon reduction impacts across the world. Our current processes are designed for the 20 ton scale, but we're working with an engineering company right now to take that from 20 tons to 200 tons per day! That will give us much larger access to the market, and prove our technology can work at scale. 

(17:11) Tell me more about your business model. Are you planning to license this technology, or are you intending to build plants across North America (and eventually the world)?

In our early stages we're going to have to develop and build the technology on a larger scale ourselves. The larger players do not have the risk tolerance to take this on themselves. Because of the way transportation and logistics work for the concrete industry, this production has to be local. One thing we're seeing is the supply of the common additives used in concrete is low in North America, forcing producers to order shipments from places like India and Japan, causing a HUGE carbon footprint. What our technology can do is take a low-grade material (not meeting current regulations) and enhance it with CO2 to get it approved for use in concrete because we give it the strength and durability that enables these materials to perform better than before. This expands the capacity of these strained supply chains that are relying on imported additives.

(19:45) I know these are early days, but are there any lessons you've learned along the journey of Carbon Upcycling?

The number one piece of advice would be to build a strong network of advisors early on. Leveraging their expertise and advice would have helped us a lot in the early stages. The other thing, especially for a small company like ourselves, is to be selective in what programs you apply for and how you allocate your time. Looking back, we may have spent too much time on some less valuable programs.