Reclinker Raises £10 Million to Scale Low-Carbon Cement

Reclinker has raised £10 million in Series A funding to scale a low-carbon cement process that uses demolition waste and electric arc furnaces already deployed for steel recycling. The Cambridge-born technology has been trialled at 7 Steel UK’s Cardiff plant, where Reclinker says it has already produced thousands of tonnes and secured its first commercial sales. The company expects the process to cut cement emissions by around 50% initially, while avoiding conventional cement kilns, quarried limestone and fossil-fuel heat.

Electric Arc Furnaces Replace the Traditional Cement Kiln

Reclinker’s process recovers cement paste from construction and demolition waste and uses it as an input inside electric arc furnaces. These furnaces are already used by the steel industry to recycle scrap, allowing Reclinker to produce new cementitious material alongside recycled steel.

That removes several of the main emissions sources in conventional clinker production. Traditional cement relies on limestone calcination and high-temperature kiln heat, both of which are carbon intensive. Reclinker says its process instead produces cementitious slag using existing steelmaking infrastructure and is targeting cost parity with conventional cement.

The Technology Has Already Moved Into Industrial Trials

The company says it has produced thousands of tonnes through trials at 7 Steel UK’s Cardiff facility and has secured its first commercial sales. That gives the funding round a stronger basis than a typical early-stage climate-tech raise, because the technology has already been tested in a working industrial environment.

The next phase is to increase production in Cardiff and build out commercial deployment. Reclinker also plans to use the funding to replicate the process at additional electric arc furnace sites in Europe and the US, which will test whether the model can be transferred across different steel plants.

Reclinker Is Targeting a Growing Materials Gap

The timing is important because blast-furnace slag, which has long been used as a lower-carbon material in cement blends, is becoming less available as steelmakers move away from traditional blast furnaces. That transition creates a potential supply gap for concrete producers looking for lower-carbon alternatives.

Reclinker is positioning its material as one way to fill that gap. By linking cement recycling with electric arc furnace steelmaking, the company can use a waste stream from one sector to create a lower-carbon input for another.

The £10 Million Round Will Fund Cardiff Expansion

The Series A was co-led by Clean Growth Fund and AP Ventures, with participation from Development Bank of Wales, Zero Carbon Capital and Cambridge Enterprise. Reclinker plans to use the capital to expand production in Cardiff, create skilled jobs in South Wales and prepare for replication at other sites.

The company’s technology has also been supported through the Innovate UK Advance Market Commitment, where large concrete users have signalled an intention to introduce more low-carbon materials over the next five years. That gives Reclinker another route to test whether demand grows alongside production capacity.

Commercial Scale Will Be the Key Test

Reclinker’s immediate challenge is to move from industrial trials and early sales into repeatable commercial production. The company says its cementitious material can deliver around a 50% emissions reduction at cost parity with conventional cement, but the strength of that claim will depend on performance at larger scale and across multiple sites.

If the Cardiff expansion succeeds, the bigger opportunity will be replication. A process that can plug into existing electric arc furnace infrastructure in Europe and the US could give Reclinker a faster route to scale than building entirely new cement production facilities.