Press Releases

December 8, 2020

• Soil Connect is a digital marketplace for excavation materials, primarily soil and aggregates, which reduces the construction industry's carbon footprint by facilitating the use of materials that would otherwise end up in landfills.

CEMEX Ventures, CEMEX's Corporate Venture Capital and open innovation unit, announced today its investment in Soil Connect. This US-based digital marketplace provides a better, faster, and cheaper way for construction professionals to transport and acquire soil, aggregates, and other building materials. Soil Connect limits waste, as users can mitigate the need to dump excess materials in landfills, and it helps reduce carbon emissions by enabling users to transact at shorter distances.

The Soil Connect platform connects the supply and demand of soil algorithmically based on the users' proximity and needs. By digitizing the monitoring and billing tasks of land-related transactions, which have historically been carried out on paper, the marketplace facilitates transparency and helps users optimize time and costs through digital documentation (e-ticketing). Additionally, Soil Connect reduces the amount of soil currently disposed of in landfills, which results in tremendous 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 favors lowering carbon emissions by reducing the transportation distance, as the platform allows users to select the desired distance within their reach to find other users with mutual interests. This investment by CEMEX Ventures is part of CEMEX's ambition to deliver net-zero CO₂ concrete globally by 2050.

Since inception, Soil Connect has acquired thousands of users who have posted over 120 million yards of materials on the marketplace, which is available in cities across the United States. As part of CEMEX Ventures' investment portfolio, Soil Connect will have access to a vast network of construction professionals who will support it in its goal of expanding its foothold in the U.S. market.

"For any relevant actor with a view to the future of our ecosystem, it is 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."

In addition to CEMEX Ventures, Soil Connect has investors such as TIA Ventures, Heartland Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Situs Capital Management, Altmark Group, Pine Management, Iron Hill Construction, and Bazella Contracting.

About Soil Connect
Soil Connect is the first and only institutionally backed digital marketplace focused on the multi-billion-dollar soil and aggregates industry. The platform was created to solve the high costs and inefficiencies associated with the transport and management of soil, aggregates and other materials. Founded by third-generation builder and developer Cliff Fetner, the app connects those who have soil and aggregates with those who need it. The marketplace offers a seamless and streamlined solution for excavators, contractors, developers, landscapers and other building professionals to network and transact with one another while saving time and money and positively impacting the environment. For more information, please visit www.soilconnect.com.

About CEMEX Ventures
Launched in 2017, CEMEX Ventures focuses on helping to solve the main challenges and capitalize on the opportunity areas in the construction ecosystem through sustainable solutions. CEMEX Ventures has created an open and collaborative platform to lead the revolution of the construction industry by engaging startups, entrepreneurs, universities, and other relevant actors to tackle the industry's toughest challenges and shape tomorrow's value ecosystem. For more information about CEMEX Ventures, please visit: www.cemexventures.com

This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect CEMEX Ventures’ current expectations and projections about future events based on CEMEX Ventures’ knowledge of present facts and circumstances and assumptions about future events, as well as CEMEX Ventures’ current plans based on such facts and circumstances. These statements necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from CEMEX Ventures’ expectations. CEMEX Ventures assumes no obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release. The information contained in this press release is subject to change without notice, and CEMEX Ventures is not obligated to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. CEMEX Ventures is not responsible for the content of any third-party website or webpage referenced to or accessible through this press release.