Composite Designers Secures Pre-Seed Investment from Carbon13 to Scale Carbon Negative Construction Materials
Composite Designers Ltd is delighted to announce that we have secured pre-seed investment from Carbon13, the venture builder and accelerator dedicated to supporting start-ups with significant climate impact. This marks an important milestone in our mission to supply the construction industry with carbon negative materials that offer practical and dependable performance.
Carbon13 recently shared the news as part of its latest round of climatetech investments (link to announcement), and we are honoured to be selected alongside other pioneering ventures addressing urgent challenges across the climate and infrastructure landscape.
Advancing Our Carbon Negative Material Technology
At Composite Designers, we are developing next-generation construction materials that permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere while offering mechanical properties that can be tailored to meet the needs of specific applications.
Our proprietary composite material sequesters -1.2 kg CO₂/kg, supporting architects, developers and manufacturers in reducing embodied carbon without compromising on performance or functionality. The construction sector has long relied on incremental improvements in carbon reduction, “but incremental reductions in carbon are no longer enough. The construction sector needs materials that deliver a genuine step change, and we are proud to be bringing a solution to market that permanently stores carbon while fitting seamlessly into existing building practices,” says Paul Radziwill, CD’s commercial director
Crucially, our material has price parity with existing market alternatives, which ensures that sustainability does not come with a cost premium. This enables straightforward substitution in construction projects and removes one of the key barriers to the adoption of low-carbon materials.
Our beachhead products for market entry are our biochar-based brick slips. These provide a carbon negative option designed as a fully plug-and-play product. Each square metre of brick slips sequesters -11.1 kg CO₂, which allows construction projects to achieve meaningful embodied carbon reductions simply by specifying a like-for-like material. “Our brick slips are a real step forward in sustainable materials, but we’ve deliberately made them anti-disruptive. They work with the same tools, the same methods and the same installation practices the industry already uses, so teams can adopt them without changing procedures or needing any retraining,” explains Frank Gommer, the technical director.
With the support of Carbon13, we are now entering an exciting phase of scaling our production capabilities. Initial equipment for our expanded production line is already en route, and we are preparing to bring our first brick slip products to market in the first quarter of 2026. Early production capacity is expected to reach between 1,000 and 2,000 units per day, which will enable pilot customer projects and provide the foundation for further industrial scaling.
Looking Ahead to Industrial-Scale Production
This investment represents the beginning of a broader expansion. To reach full industrial-scale production and accelerate the transition to low-carbon construction, we are now actively seeking further investment. We warmly welcome conversations with investors, partners and industry stakeholders who share our ambition to deliver a substantial reduction in the carbon footprint of the built environment.
Directors Paul Radziwill and Frank Gommer express their sincere thanks for Carbon13’s support and look forward to developing Composite Designers into a key contributor to a climate-positive construction sector.
If you are interested in joining us on this journey, partnering with us or learning more about our technology, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Together, we can build a future in which construction materials contribute to climate restoration, one kilogram at a time.