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Soil Connect is a digital marketplace for excavation materials, primarily soil and aggregates. The US-based business aims to provide a better, faster and cost-effective way for construction professionals to transport and acquire soil, aggregates, and other building materials.
The Soil Connect platform uses algorithms to help connect supply and demand based on the users' proximity and needs. The marketplace digitises monitoring and billing tasks for the transactions to facilitate transparency and help users optimise time and costs.
Cemex Ventures said that, in addition, Soil Connect reduces the amount of soil currently disposed of in landfills, which results in significant cost savings for construction professionals. This also promotes circular economy within the sector by giving a new life to materials that otherwise, would have been discarded. Soil Connect also favours lowering carbon emissions by reducing the transportation distance, as the platform allows users to select the desired distance within their reach.
This investment by Cemex Ventures is part of Cemex's ambition to deliver net-zero CO2 concrete globally by 2050.
Since its inception, Soil Connect has acquired thousands of users who have posted over 90 million cubic metres of materials on the marketplace, which is available in cities across the United States.
"For any relevant actor with a view to the future of our ecosystem, it should be a priority to offer a solution to the millions of tons of materials that are generated annually in demolition projects, since much of the construction materials of tomorrow come from the projects to be demolished," said Cristina Aparicio, head of Cemex Ventures' investment in Soil Connect. "We are very excited about this agreement with the Soil Connect team, which has created a business that adds value, both to those who generate the waste and to those who need construction material, prioritizing this tool that provides agility."
"As a third-generation builder and developer, the most frustrating part of the job was identifying how technology was changing the rules of the game for other industries, but bypassing the soil and aggregates industry," said Cliff Fetner, founder and CEO of Soil Connect. "Our mission in launching Soil Connect is not just to create a marketplace; we want to establish the first unique trading platform in the industry. Making it easy for individuals to find or dispose of materials was the critical first step, and by adding the functionality of having digital documentation, we have taken the platform to another level and integrated our goal of supporting the entire transaction, from start to finish.”
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