Sustainable Pretred secures $3m funding from Heritage Group

Pretred, a Colorado-based company that produces industrial barriers from 95% recycled materials, has announced a $3 million seed investment led by HG Ventures, the corporate venture arm of The Heritage Group.

Pretred will use this investment to scale its US-based tyre and plastic recycling process to meet growing demand for green construction products. Pretred is a graduate of the 2020 cohort of The Heritage Group Accelerator Powered by Techstars, a program for mentoring and developing early-stage companies in the hardtech industries of advanced materials, infrastructure, and environmental services. To watch a video about its prototype products, click here.

Tyre waste has become a worldwide environmental challenge, with more than 1 billion sent to landfill or burned every year. The Pretred technology recycles approximately 65,000 tyres for every mile of barriers (880 barriers), or 75 for every six-foot barrier. These barriers reduce 98% of equivalent CO2 emissions compared with concrete barriers, providing a sustainable product for use in construction, roads, parks and beyond.

"By successfully raising our seed round, we can accelerate our scale up and deploy our barriers and blocks in markets that are in immediate need of high-performance sustainable materials," said Eric Davis, CEO at Pretred. "We value our partnership with The Heritage Group and have already tapped into their technical and market expertise in construction materials and the circular economy."

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to invest in Pretred, as we have been impressed with the creativity, experience and passion of their management team," said Ginger Rothrock, Senior Director at HG Ventures and Pretred board member.

"We believe that Pretred is a pioneer in the manufacture of green construction materials by fashioning beautiful, rugged, and environmentally-responsible construction products from some of the worst polluting materials in the world." Generally, HG Ventures will invest up to $20 million in each portfolio company, but it has the "ability to invest more" depending on the opportunity.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that the construction industry accounts for 36% of global energy consumption, and approximately 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Materials manufacturer Covestro recently introduced its first material developed by the additive manufacturing business recently acquired from DSM: a glass-fiber filled recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) for 3D pellet printing. Made from post-consumer PET waste, Arnite AM2001 GF (G) rPET perfectly fits Covestro’s vision for a Circular Economy.

Alongside recycling, suppliers are turning more to prefabrication, BIM and integrated design in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint and enhance sustainable construction methods.

Building prefabricated modules offsite can speed up the construction process by as much as 50% and cut costs by up to 20%.

Read more on the growth in remote and modular construction in the June issue.