Neocrete SCM-Activating Concrete Additive

Neocrete is a New Zealand company founded in 2018 by Zarina Alexander and Matt Kennedy-Good, with laboratories in Parnell, Auckland and a manufacturing plant in South Auckland. It tackles the cost and carbon of cement by making cheap, low-reactivity local pozzolans usable at higher replacement rates.

Its dry-powder, multi-mechanism additive uses high-surface-charge particles to activate dormant cement and pozzolanic particles, delay early hydration to reduce water demand, accelerate hydration and pozzolanic reactions and densify the microstructure. It works with fly ash and pond ash, slag, calcined clays, natural volcanic pozzolans and limestone within existing plant operations, and is classified as an EN 934 admixture. Customers are ready-mix concrete producers, cement manufacturers and pozzolan suppliers, starting with Readymix Brunei.

• Molecular activation: wakes up unreacted cement and pozzolanic particles to create more bonding sites.
• Water reduction: slows early hydration to lower free water and improve strength and durability.
• Reaction acceleration: speeds up hydration and pozzolanic reactions for early strength in high-SCM mixes.
• Microstructure densification: increases bond density for a less permeable concrete matrix.
• Broad SCM compatibility: works with fly ash, pond ash, slag, calcined clays, natural pozzolans and limestone.
• Concrete Proof trials: testing programmes on each customer's own local materials before scale-up.

Ready-mix producers near coal power plants in northern Vietnam can use pond ash with the additive to replace part of the cement in G25 to G50 concrete. Port and infrastructure contractors can lower the cost and carbon of large pours. Ash-handling companies at thermal power plants can upgrade their ash into a higher-value pozzolan product.

Commercial pours replace 30% of cement, cutting embodied carbon by about 25% and cost by about 10% (around US$6 per cubic metre). At Muara Port in Brunei, 3,700 cubic metres avoided about 215 tonnes of CO2 and saved nearly US$20,000. Pilot mixes with about 40% activated ash matched or exceeded CEM I strength. Producers keep existing plant operations without extra processing of the ash.

Cement production accounts for around 8% of global carbon emissions, and producers are under pressure to cut clinker without raising cost. Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, generates large volumes of coal-plant fly ash and pond ash that remain under-used, creating an opportunity for additives that turn low-grade local ash into a cement substitute.

Founded in 2018 in New Zealand; offices and labs in Auckland. Raised US$3.5 million in August 2026 led by Wavemaker Ventures with Icehouse Ventures and Temasek Trust's C3H. Selected for the GCCA 2023 Innovandi Challenge and by Amazon GoBuild, Greentown Labs, CRH Accelerator and JLL Foundation; performance verified by Brunei's ABCi.