Andromeda, Spain’s first major technology fund to accelerate the energy transition and sustainability, launched last May by Iberdrola, the ICO Next Tech Fund, Nortia Capital and Seaya, has already begun to seed. It has entered the capital of the construction company 011h, focused on the transition to a sustainable world thanks to the design and construction of carbon neutral buildings. In this way, it becomes the first investment of this investment vehicle.
Founded in late 2020, 011h Construction ensures that it places sustainability, quality and people at the heart of its business, with the aim of mitigating climate change and providing access to affordable, healthy and sustainable housing.
The builder has standardised and digitalised the construction process to make it easily repeatable and scalable, while incorporating sustainable principles and materials and preserving design flexibility. This enables architects, contractors, developers and investors to design, construct and manage quality buildings faster, more reliably and cost-effectively.
In addition to Andromeda, the financing round, with which 011h has raised 25 million euros, also involved the Swiss venture capital firm Redalpine, France’s Breega and Spain’s Aldea Ventures, among other investors.
The company is committed to optimising the construction process along the entire value chain: use of materials, labour and the design, manufacturing and assembly processes. The aim is to standardise methods and make them easily repeatable and scalable. In addition, it will only rely on partners with high standards in ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria that assume activities in assets and labour (materials and external manufacturers), but deeply integrated in design and operations.
A few months ago, the company completed a residential building in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) with which it achieved several milestones. CO2 emissions in the construction were reduced by more than 90% compared to conventional methods and deadlines were reduced by 35%. Now, 011h is in the process of building a block of flats in San Juan de Alicante (Alicante).
Andromeda is the first large technology
Andromeda, the first large technology fund in Spain
venture capital fund to have concrete sustainability objectives in line with Article 9 of the EU Regulation, with clear and measurable environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) criteria.
The fund, which aims to have a size of EUR 300 million, is born with public participation of up to €100 million through the Next Tech Fund.
This project is part of the Government’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which promotes public-private collaboration in innovative digital projects in high-impact technologies and the development of scale-ups that generate quality employment.
The role of innovation with PERSEO
With its participation in Andromeda, Iberdrola took a further step towards entrepreneurship and technological leadership through its PERSEO start-up programme, which aims to facilitate the group’s access to the technologies of the future and foster the collaboration and development of a global ecosystem of technological and innovative companies in the electricity sector.
The programme has focused its activities on the analysis of business opportunities and technological collaboration with start-ups and emerging companies around the world, analysing 300 companies each year and creating an ecosystem of almost 7,500 entrepreneurial companies from more than 35 countries.
Since its creation, the programme has invested €100 million in supporting open innovation and creating synergies with start-ups developing innovative technologies and business models.
