Press Releases

May 19, 2020

• CEMEX Ventures, Ferrovial, Hilti, VINCI Group’s Leonard, and NOVA by Saint-Gobain launch the 2020 Construction Startup Competition, seeking entrepreneurs and startups to drive innovation in the construction industry.
• The call will be open to participants from around the world from May 19 through July 26.

CEMEX Ventures, CEMEX’s Corporate Venture Capital Unit, announced today the launch of the 2020 Construction Startup Competition. After the tremendous growth of its previous editions, Ferrovial, Hilti, VINCI Group’s Leonard, and NOVA by Saint-Gobain joined the competition with the objective of identifying and fostering startups to lead the transformation of the construction industry.

Under the slogan “You are the missing piece,” the five key industry players invite all entrepreneurs worldwide with innovative construction solutions to participate in this year’s edition by submitting their projects from May 19 through July 26, 2020. The winners will be evaluated on five areas of opportunity within the industry—from smart cities and buildings to optimization of supply chain management, construction with innovative materials or methods, and optimization of productivity, efficiency, and quality in daily project management, among others.

CEMEX Ventures, Ferrovial, Hilti, VINCI Group’s Leonard, and NOVA by Saint-Gobain come together for the 2020 Construction Startup Competition to add their weight behind startups breaking the paradigm of one of the least digitized and most fragmented industries. They will join their expertise and resources to boost startups with their knowledge of infrastructure, materials, and equipment, among other disciplines.

Those interested in participating can apply through CEMEX Ventures’ webpage (https://www.cemexventures.com/startup-competition-2020/). Once the five host companies have evaluated all of the proposals, they will engage the most promising startups with a further set of opportunities, from workshops to pilots or investments. In this fourth edition of the Construction Startup Competition, the winning startups will be invited to Chicago, USA, to present their solutions to an audience composed of global leaders in innovation, investment, and construction, tentatively on December 2-3, 2020.

The global presence of the five host corporations allows startups from anywhere in the world to participate in the competition, giving them the opportunity to scale and expand their business to new geographic markets. The position these five leaders occupy within the construction value chain provides the participants with wide visibility of the challenges that the industry faces, as well as access to an active portfolio of important contacts. These factors help build connections to new investors and companies focused on innovation. Moreover, the competition offers participants the possibility of testing and implementing their solutions with any of the five host companies.

The great growth of past editions—where the number of applicants skyrocketed from year to year—helped to develop an ecosystem of over a thousand startups from over 80 countries focused on the construction industry. The 2020 Construction Startup Competition aims to complete a vision of new emerging solutions in the industry, facilitate an efficient review of investment opportunities, and create a community of players committed to solving the industry’s challenges from an innovative, technological, and sustainable point of view.

For more information regarding the 2020 Construction Startup Competition, please visit https://www.cemexventures.com/startup-competition-2020/.

CEMEX Ventures
Launched in 2017, CEMEX Ventures focuses on helping overcome the main challenges and capitalizing on the opportunity areas in the construction ecosystem through sustainable solutions. CEMEX Ventures has developed an open collaborative platform to lead the revolution of the construction industry, engaging startups, entrepreneurs, universities, and other stakeholders to tackle the challenges in the construction environment and shape the industry’s future. For more information on CEMEX Ventures, please visit: www.cemexventures.com.

FERROVIAL
Ferrovial, a leading global infrastructure operator, is committed to developing sustainable solutions. It is a member of Spain's blue-chip IBEX 35 index and is also included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good Index; all its operations are conducted in compliance with the principles of the UN Global Compact, which the company adopted in 2002. For more information on Ferrovial, please visit: www.ferrovial.com.

HILTI
Hilti makes construction work simpler, faster and safer. With products, systems, software and services that provide clear added value, Hilti stands for quality, innovation and direct customer relationships. The company has roughly 250,000 direct interactions with customers each day, meaning that many innovative ideas are developed directly on construction sites. If there is a challenge on the construction site for which there is no Hilti solution, one will be developed. This is why the company invests approximately 6 percent of sales each year in research and development. To learn more about Hilti, please visit: www.hilti.group.

LEONARD
Leonard is the innovation and foresight platform set up by VINCI, a global player in concessions and contracting, employing more than 222,000 people in nearly 120 countries. Leonard is responsible for tracking emerging trends in VINCI's business activities and markets, identifying long-term challenges and goals, pinpointing opportunities for change in the Group's businesses and organizational structure, identifying new growth drivers and developing innovative projects incubation and acceleration programs open to both Group employees and startups. For more information, please visit: https://leonard.vinci.com/.

NOVA by SAINT-GOBAIN
Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions which are key ingredients in the wellbeing of each of us and the future of all. They can be found everywhere in our living places and our daily life: in buildings, transportation, infrastructure and in many industrial applications. They provide comfort, performance and safety while addressing the challenges of sustainable construction, resource efficiency and climate change. Sales of €42.6 billion in 2019 / Operates in 68 countries/ More than 170,000 employees.To learn more about Saint-Gobain, please visit: www.saint-gobain.com and follow us on Twitter @saintgobain.

CEMEX Ventures assumes no obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release. CEMEX Ventures is not responsible for the content of any third-party website or webpage referenced to or accessible through this press release.