Emidat secures EUR 4 million seed

More efficient environmental product declarations for building materials: Emidat secures EUR 4 million from General Catalyst to help construction companies decarbonize

Munich, October 29, 2024 - Emidat, a Munich-based startup in the field of AI-based environmental data solutions for the construction industry, today announces that it has received EUR 4 million in seed funding. General Catalyst is the lead investor in this round. Emidat plans to use the funds to expand its platform, drive the development of new features and strengthen the team. These steps should help the construction industry to label building materials in detail and thus reduce the ecological footprint of the built environment.

New requirements for environmental declarations for construction products

The EU Construction Products Regulation, which comes into force in November 2024, poses new challenges for the construction industry. From now on, environmental product declarations (EPDs) are mandatory for many building materials. These declarations provide detailed information about the environmental impact of a material, including its production, use and recycling options. However, the process of creating these declarations is costly and time-consuming for many companies, as the construction and real estate sector has so far been slow to embrace digitalization

In view of the climate policy challenges and the growing importance of the construction industry for the global carbon footprint, there is enormous potential to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of this sector.

Lisa Oberaigner, co-founder and CEO of Emidat

The Munich-based start-up Emidat offers a solution to make this process more efficient. With the help of an AI-based platform that collects and processes environmental data on building materials, Emidat reduces the effort involved in creating EPDs by over 70 percent. Emidat has now secured EUR 4 million in seed funding for the further development of this platform, led by well-known investor General Catalyst. This investment is intended to accelerate the development and expansion of the operating system and enable the company to expand its team.

EU market potential for EPDs in the billions

The market potential is immense: the EU regulation is expected to lead to a 25-fold increase in the number of EPDs required. Experts estimate that the annual market value of environmental declarations in Europe alone could be at least 5 billion euros.

Emidat provides a centralized, collaborative platform that can accelerate the digital transformation of the entire construction value chain and make the industry more efficient.

Samuel Beyer, General Catalyst investor

Optimization potential for construction companies and material manufacturers

Emidat's platform integrates seamlessly into existing systems and enables the collection and analysis of environmental data on over 150,000 construction products via API interfaces, Excel and BIM. Emidat offers significant advantages for material manufacturers: The EPD creation process is simplified, transparency is increased and sustainability is enhanced by being able to prove their environmental data to stakeholders.

Emidat was founded in 2023 and already counts several market leaders in the building materials sector among its customers. These include companies in the concrete, insulation, steel and façade industries. Customers such as Schwenk Building Materials report that Emidat has enabled them to reduce their EPD creation costs by up to 70 percent - a promising path to the sustainable transformation of the construction industry.