GigaOM » Hycrete

Hycrete Growing Rapidly, Pounding Path to Profitability

Justin Moresco — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:30:29 +0000

The construction industry is about as conservative as they come, but green building materials startup Hycrete has got building contractors giddy about its technology, a chemical that makes concrete waterproof. To take advantage of growing demand, the Carlstadt, N.J.-based startup, which raised $15 million in a third round of venture funding last year, plans to open offices in two more U.S. states (Texas and Illinois) and is looking to expand into Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Hycrete currently operates in nine U.S. states and its products have been used in projects in Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, India and Turkey. CEO David Rosenberg tells us that he expects revenue to grow between 50 and 100 percent this year and that the company will be profitable by 2011. In fact, Rosenberg said that if it weren’t for these aggressive expansion plans, Hycrete would be profitable this year.

Hycrete, which was selected as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2008, has developed a chemical that when added to concrete makes the popular building material waterproof. Traditionally, concrete walls that were underground — like parking structures — had be protected from the surrounding soil with a plastic membrane so that water from the soil doesn’t penetrate the material and cause damage. Adding the waterproof barrier is a costly and time-consuming process, however, one that can lead to lawsuits when not done properly. Hycrete says its admixture eliminates this step and can save between 20 and 60 percent on the installed price of a warranted membrane.

Hycrete is a play in the growing green building materials market, which NextGen Research estimates will grow about 5 percent per year globally to reach $571 billion by 2013, up from about $455 billion last year. While Hycrete’s technology doesn’t dramatically reduce the carbon emissions associated with making concrete — startups like Calera and CalStar Cement are tackling that issue more directly— it does eliminate the need for petroleum-based membranes, speed up the construction process, and make concrete buildings more durable.

For those reasons, Rosenberg said a building at Thomas Jefferson Law School in San Diego this week was awarded a point under the green building certification program LEED for using Hycrete’s admixture, the first time the product on its own contributed a LEED point to a project. While contractors will be most interested in the technology because it saves time and money, green-minded architects should be drawn to Hycrete not only for its cost savings but because it will help them build LEED-certified buildings. But the construction industry is diffuse and regionally based, so Hycrete has a massive hill to climb in persuading building professionals of its technology if it wants to penetrate deep into this conservative market.

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Hycrete Solidifies $15M for Green Concrete

Craig Rubens — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:57:17 +0000

Green concrete maker Hycrete has raised $15 million in a Series C round of funding, the company tells us this morning. The round was led by Mohr Davidow and the funds will be used for international expansion. Going international will be a capital-intensive endeavor for Hycrete as the company doesn’t plan to license its proprietary concrete mix and will instead own and operate plants.

Hycrete’s plan to expand internationally will connect it with the huge demand abroad for construction materials. The fastest-growing concrete markets are scattered all over the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia as construction has exploded in the developing world. China alone accounted for 45 percent of the concrete production and use last year.

Hycrete has developed a hydrophobic cement that greatly increases the life of the cement as it won’t absorb water, which cause cracks. The company says their waterproofing cement doesn’t require any special manufacturing and can be made in existing cement factories. Simply add their special Hycrete Admixture to the mixer and you’ve got waterproof cement. This process saves time on the project site compared to other waterproofing techniques, thereby saving on construction costs, the company says.

This round brings Carlstadt, N.J.-based Hycrete’s funding total to $25 million, according to a company spokesman. Previous investors included RockPort Capital and NGEN Partners.

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Everyone could use a SecondBrain

Bob Walsh — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:00:17 +0000

Whether you’re diving into social media this summer or still looking for the productivity benefit of all these online social apps, there’s a service I’ve been using the last few weeks that is worthy of you attention: SecondBrain.

What SecondBrain does very, very well is combine the content you create in 20 major social networking apps into searchable, well-organized collections. Everything from Twitter and del.icio.us, WordPress (.com and self-hosted), YouTube and Vimeo and more are grist for this Web 2.0 mill.

While is very handy to see all of your content in one place under one tag cloud, the fun starts when searching for information in other people’s collections and content that span all those social networking apps. By way of example, digging into Ruby on Rails and traditional search engines like Google turn up too much old, moldy information.

With SecondBrain, I’m able to find not just what I could have found searching del.icio.use, digg, and YouTube individually, but the best gleamings from 17 other social venues. And I can add the juiciest bits to my Rails Collection with one click in SecondBrain or my own finds via the handy SecondBrain bookmarklet.

Further, SecondBrain is also a social network; so as you find people more adroit than you at finding good content – be it photos on Flickr or pdfs on Scribd you can start tracking what they are adding to their online digital lifestreams in realtime.

While SecondBrain is in beta, it’s one of the slickest, most well thought out online apps I’ve seen: the signup workflow puts to shame every other signup I’ve ever gone through. But there are some sharp edges: searching for content while your exploring people fails on occasion and you can’t as of now export your collections (Download Squad says this is in the works).

In the few weeks I’ve been using SecondBrain they’ve add 5 new social networks you can pull your content from: this is Web 2.0 app worthy of consideration by any web worker.

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Macrovision to Buy Gemstar-TV Guide

Chris Albrecht — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:23:04 +0000

Content protection firm Macrovision has agreed to buy TV listings provider Gemstar-TV Guide for $2.8 billion in cash and stock, the two said today. Macrovision’s goal is to combine its security software with TV Guide’s programming data, enabling consumer access to information on TV programming, photo collections and music libraries across a variety of devices.

The TV Guide buy falls in line with Macrovision’s earlier purchase of music, movie and games info database All Media Guide.

If Macrovision really wants to give people access to information about video content, this acquisition only gets them partway there. TV Guide may be the go-to source for professional, mainstream content, but it basically ignores independently-produced video. TV Guide’s Stingray search service neglected UGC content, and its Online Video Awards were more of a showcase for Will Ferrell and the major networks.

For indie and UGC content, Macrovision will have to look elsewhere. We hear MeeVee may be looking for a buyer.

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Black Friday site-wide sale at eReader

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:51:04 +0000

Much of the eBook attention lately is on Amazon’s Kindle, and rightly so. I resisted my early-adopter genes and didn’t pull the trigger on a Kindle, so eReader continues to be my current platform for digital content reading. eReader fans likely subscribe to the eReader newsletter, which provides a 10% coupon code in each issue. Today only, you can save 20% in a site-wide eReader sale for Black Friday. Use the code “BLKFRY” when checking out for double the normal savings!If you are shopping today, consider hitting our Amazon store link at the page top. You get great deals and we get a small affiliate reward, so it’s a win-win! Plus you don’t have to fight the Black Friday crowds at the brick-and-mortar stores. ;)

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UT Starcom’s Euro Push

Om Malik — Fri, 26 Nov 2004 18:49:15 +0000

Light Reading reports that UT Starcom is quietly making a push into the European market, and is banking on high demand for its fixed wireless, wireless and triple play products. It is an effort to expand beyond its very Chinese/Asian roots.

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