Marketplace for circular building materials

Conception of a circular trading platform for building materials

Industry:

Regenerative Business

Region:

Germany, Europe

Business Models:

Marketplace

Contributed Competencies:

Financing, Requirements engineering, UX/UI design

Success Factors:

Branding, Go-to-market, Product-market fit

Introduction

Circular economy as a measure against rising operating costs and future sustainability requirements

The construction industry is facing the major challenge of becoming significantly more cost-efficient and at the same time more sustainable in the coming years. The trend towards circular housing construction continues, but there is currently not enough recycled material to meet this demand. DevelopX has taken a structured approach to this issue and, with a construction group as a partner, has founded and built a platform for optimal material flow management.

Challenge

The recycling process within the construction industry is very complex as the market is highly fragmented and the intra-industry exchange is limited to the respective local cluster only. This condition leads to a mismatch in the recycling of construction materials. Recycling facilities lack market access because many construction companies do not know that they could also purchase the material from recycling facilities and instead buy new material. And it is easier for construction companies to store the material from demolished buildings at landfills because they usually do not have access to recycling facilities within their local clusters. In addition, before recycling materials, it is necessary to determine their composition and then transport them to the recycling facility. Without a financial incentive, the effort is too high for the construction companies, so most of the construction material ends up in landfills. In general, it can be said that there is too little data within the construction industry to manage material flows sustainably and efficiently. To counteract this problem, a circular trading platform for construction materials was developed.

Developx Solution

Design and implementation of a circular trading platform for optimizing material flow management

Our approach

Creation of a quantitative business case based on validated assumptions
Development of the platform in cross-functional remote teams with external developers and designers
Deriving core features based on regular exchanges with industry experts
Definition and prioritization of features and user stories
Creation of first high-level wireframes with respect to briefing of the design team
Securing adequate funding through support in the seed round

Our added value

Building the platform for brokering waste disposal and recycling orders based on our proprietary algorithm
Oversubscribed 7-figure financing round in a venture capital market characterized by uncertainty and low investment appetite (Q4 2022)

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Managing Partner

Konrad Hintermair

Konrad is one of the founders of DevelopX and leads the company as Managing Partner. He founded DevelopX in 2019 as a partner of TruVenturo, one of Europe’s leading company builders in the digital space. Prior to founding DevelopX, Konrad was responsible for founding and scaling several tech startups at TruVenturo and realized several successful exits.

After studying materials science, Konrad worked for several years as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in Hamburg, advising companies in the manufacturing, high tech and chemicals sectors. Konrad holds an MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona and lives in Hamburg.

As an engineer and passionate entrepreneur, Konrad works with companies in the energy, industrials and logistics sectors and advises our private equity clients in due diligence or portfolio optimization.