CarbonCure's Biggest Competition May Be the Very Industry It's Aiming to Decarbonize
Focusing in on CarbonCure's Innovative Capabilities in a Traditionally Conservative Sector
Reflecting on last week's article, which examined CarbonCure's position in the Cement Industry, I’m diving deeper on CarbonCure's capabilities and socio-political challenges in the market.
I'll focus on three capabilities that will impact the realization and sustainability of CarbonCure's competitive advantages:
Market Influence
Technology Development
Innovative Delivery Model
Market influence may not seem as important as delivery model or technology; however, a great product that lacks distribution delivers no value. The cement sector is very conservative when it comes to adopting new technologies due to quality, safety, and reliability concerns among stakeholders and the lengthy bureaucratic processes to obtain permits for alternative building materials. Adoption of CarbonCure’s technology goes beyond the installation at a concrete production plant; CarbonCure's ability to influence governments, developers, owners, architects, structural engineers, and contractors to create increased demand will ultimately define their success.
CarbonCure's technology development has attracted investments from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Amazon’s Climate pledge and won the Carbon XPRIZE. Their in-house expertise, existing patents, relationships w/ academia, and access to talent (locally and globally) should enable a sustainable technology development capability.
The 'As A Service' model, born in tech as ‘Software As A Service’ (SaaS), is simple in theory. The software is licensed to the customer on a subscription basis with no up-front cost. CarbonCure’s ‘software’ just happens to be a CO2 injection system that is retrofitted into an existing concrete production facility. For concrete producers, the licensing fee (which is essentially negated by production savings) covers ongoing support and services from CarbonCure. This model does not disrupt the customer’s value chain and allows them to focus on their core business. CarbonCure has also invested in a diverse business development and sales team with industry and software experience and is growing their operations team to support this delivery model well into the future.