Traditional construction materials, notably cement which contributes to 4 billion metric tons of CO2 per year alone, damages the environment and depletes resources. Recognizing this, researchers have long explored alternative materials to mitigate these impacts.
One promising avenue involves integrating lignocellulosic (fiber) waste into construction materials, offering both environmental benefits and cost efficiencies.
However, when researchers have tried to combine cement with the biomass, they have failed in achieving adequate cohesion between the two materials.
Lignocellulosic waste, derived from wood and agricultural residues, introduces sugars and lesions that compromise the structural integrity of the composite. These imperfections result in weakened and brittle end products, undermining their suitability for construction applications.
After over a decade of research and development, MOXY has successfully found a way to efficiently mineralize lignocellulosic waste resulting into a new "super material" by transforming it on a molecular level using proprietary techniques and equipment, in a highly scalable process.
This new sustainable materials is fire,- water,- termite-, and mold-resistant. Given these qualities, compared to current building materials, MOXY is positioned to disrupt the $1.2 trillion dollar market.
MOXY's mineralization process transforms any lignocellulosic waste into a construction material known as CERLOS – akin to a hybrid of wood and tile.
The material is fire-, water-, termite-, and mold-resistant and is workable with standard carpentry tools.
Their innovative platform technology allows CERLOS to be modified into almost any shape, profile and density. This flexibility enables MOXY to penetrate the many sub-sectors of construction products, such as siding, roofing, panels, I-beams, laminates, poles/posts, blocks, and trims.
To safeguard intellectual property, MOXY intends to patent equipment and processes while maintaining key formulations as trade secrets.
Importantly, although the same three ingredients of nearly all wood mineralization efforts have been in the public for decades, over those same decades the team went to great lengths to identify, refine and (in recent years) optimize their proprietary and unique CERLOS material process innovation. The reason no one else has a material that performs like CERLOS is because no one else knows how to make anything close to CERLOS, not reliably or repeatedly.
Licensing agreements will entail controlled stages with MOXY overseeing ingredients and monitoring chemical and mechanical processes, ensuring protection of proprietary technology and fostering defensibility. We believe MOXY is in a strong IP position for their stage, and that position will only get stronger.
MOXY’s technology is based on three readily available and commercialized ingredients, which not only simplifies their supply chain but also decreases the risk for high cost products at scale.
The modularity of their products also enables flexibility in the waste feedstock they use. They will partner with their licensees to maximize economies of scale in order to maintain product price competitiveness.
MOXY’s process uses an exothermic reaction to cure their product, minimizing the energy input. The company should be enjoying EBITDA margins of 45+% through their licensing business model the first few years.
Through the opportunity to propose a range of different products, simultaneously more durable and at a lower price, MOXY will quickly have enough revenue to establish their own facility.
To capture the largely untapped siding market, the company plans to sell directly from their own facilities. Currently, they operate a research facility in the Netherlands, where they provide samples to constructions material manufacturers. Despite challenges in expanding within a static building material market, MOXY presents a promising, cost-effective solution.
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The construction industry contributes to 23% of CO2 emissions, facing challenges of fire, water, and termite damages alongside high costs and toxicity.
CERLOS is poised to remove 72-100 million tons of CO2 yearly, with a lifespan exceeding 100 years.
This impact is further amplified by the recyclability of CERLOS, potentially perpetuating its environmental benefits through successive iterations. Even in scenarios where recycling proves challenging, the end-of-life product can serve as a potent plant fertilizer after grinding.
There has been an increasing amount of competition in the space. At One Ventures’ review and due diligence of many material companies in the space has proven to lack cost efficiency and materials’ strength. MOXY's unit economics advantage could pave the way for market entry.
Understanding the cyclical nature of construction, MOXY strategizes licensing agreements and self-production, focusing on market segmentation and partnerships with industry leaders. MOXY is already in discussion with many large building material manufacturers.
By leveraging MOXY's platform technology, companies can tap into new market shares without cannibalizing existing ones. Furthermore, the company facilitates the development of innovative designs and products tailored to the environmentally friendly market, potentially enhancing both profitability and market reach.
The inventor of CERLOS envisioned a material combining the qualities of wood with those of masonry or ceramics. After years of dedicated research and extraordinary persistence, Alan Heywood discovered the essential properties of the source ingredients and the chemistry required to create it. This led to the development of an unexpected material produced through a unique combination of chemical and mechanical processes. Alan is now an advisor to the team where Robert Bedard is CEO.
Robert is an entrepreneurial business leader with a strong goal-oriented focus and possesses expertise in bringing innovative products to market, with over 30 years of experience in financial services, M&A, and commercial development, particularly in the building materials industry.
Robert has held top leadership roles at Bank of BC (HSBC Canada), and served as CEO and founder of Citiclaims Brokers and Avenue Zero. Investor and co-founder of MOXY. He has also served on numerous corporate and advisory boards throughout his professional career.
"MOXY is bringing a new low cost Earth-compatible material to market which could have broad applications in construction and beyond," explains the lead partner on the deal, Tom Chi, who will now serve on MOXY's board. More from Tom:
Because its core feedstock is any lignocellulosic input, there is incredible amount of raw material at low cost, and the processing cost is also incredibly low, largely being a low-energy mechanical process with a thermal component that is driven via exothermic reaction as opposed to potentially carbon emitting industrial heat input.
Furthermore, by securing this lignocellulosic material in a format similar to petrified wood, they lock in permanent sequestration of the carbon embodied in the material, which would have normally returned to the atmosphere via decay processes. The result is a material that is waterproof, mold-proof, termite-proof, and fireproof while have many cost-competitive applications including roofing, siding, and following testing and certification, structural applications.
All of this has huge implications for how we are able to work with waste biomaterial, but can also make a dent in old-growth deforestation, given that process can be done as a continuous line process making arbitrarily long board feet which historically is only available from very tall (and old) trees.
The co-founder and original inventor of MOXY's technology was also the inventor of OSB board, which is widely used across the construction industry, and given this, the material is a fantastic fit.
Our customer interviews revealed incredibly enthusiastic response, particularly driven by how well MOXY's material performed in punishing tests, including firing fist sized hail balls at 200mph in a roof material testing facility, and placing the material under a blowtorch for 3 hours. It sailed through those tests beyond anything they'd seen in a biomaterial and outperformed a wide variety of common construction materials.
We also tested its workability with various machine tools and it performed with with standard construction tools like saws, drills, sanders, and nails. This was corroborated by building developers who had done the same tests and more.
MOXY is in advanced licensing discussions with four of the largest building material manufacturing companies. This holds the potential for rapid scale growth and distribution of the material.
